If you want to plant the darkest grass available on the market, Fireball perennial rye grass is the perfect choice! Not only is Fireball rye grass known for its dark color and resistance to disease and drought, but it germinates extremely quickly – making it one of the easiest grass types to grow a new lawn with.
Having just recently seeded a new lawn with Fireball rye grass, I wanted to go over the steps of what you should do, and also avoid, in order to get the best results possible.
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Step 1 – Choosing The Right Time To Plant Fireball
The biggest factor when growing Fireball grass seed is soil temperature. Ryegrass germinates in soil temperatures of 50-65° F.
As you can see from this chart, this means that the ideal times of year to plant perennial ryegrass is in the spring or fall.
Step 2 – Prepare The Soil
When seeding a new lawn, it’s important to remove large debris from the soil. This includes things like rocks, bark, and anything else that is larger than the size of a marble.
It’s also important to loosen the soil with a rake or garden tiller. The reason for this is that compacted soil is hard for new grass seedlings to root into, thus reducing the seedlings chances of surviving.
👉 BUY – BILT HARD Garden Tiller
Step 3 – Spread Grass Seed Evenly
Spread Fireball rye grass seed at a rate of 8-10 lbs. per 1,000 square feet when seeding a new lawn. Spread 4-5 lbs. of seed per 1,000 square feet when overseeding an existing lawn.
While many people suggest using a drop spreader, we’ve found that the cheaper and easier option is to use a simple hand spreader.
👉 BUY – Scotts Whirl Hand-Powered Spreader for Seed
Step 4 – Top-Dress With Peat Moss
Do not skip this step! Applying a thin layer of peat moss over your grass seed helps your grass seed to stay warm at night and helps to retain moisture. Without consistent moisture, your grass seed will die.
In the photo above, we used a peat moss spreader which rolls over the area and distributes an even layer of peatmoss – we’d highly recommend it! Not only does a peat moss spreader help to push the seed into the soil, but it also helps to fill in any uneven spots to give you a nice smooth surface.
👉 BUY – Peat Moss Spreader
Step 5 – Water And Wait
Watering consistently is the most important step. Keep the soil moist by watering lightly a few times every day for the first 1-2 weeks. The goal is to keep the top layer of soil consistently damp.
With ideal soil temperatures and consistent watering, Fireball rye grass should start to germinate within 5-10 days. Here’s what our project looked like 8 days after seeding:
After about 2 weeks, lessen the watering to once a day for about 5-10 minutes. Here’s what our project looked like after 13 days:
After 3 weeks, the grass should be fully germinated and a healthy root structure should be formed. You can then back off watering to the suggested amount of 1-1.5 inches of water per week for ryegrass.
Step 6 – Mow When Ready
Once your new Fireball ryegrass reaches a height of about 3-4 inches, it’s time to mow! We’d recommend setting your mower height to about 2-3 inches as cutting off more than a 1/3 of the blade length can stress out the grass.
This is what our project looked like after 3 weeks from seeding and after the first mow:
Planting Fireball Rye Grass Is Easy
If you’ve been on the fence about planting a new lawn with Fireball, hopefully you can see how easy it is to do.
Fireball grass seed germinates extremely quickly, which means that you can have a dark and lush lawn within only 2-3 weeks of seeding. By topdressing the seed with peat moss and watering consistently to keep the seed moist and damp, you too can enjoy the darkest lawn available on the market.