ever had new lawn hydroseeded?

[DogwoodTales]

Just wondering - if you have had a new lawn (from dirt) hydroseeded - how thick was the mulch that was put down with the seed and fertilizer?

[ajkoontz]

Not home use, but I build roads for the DOT and Indiana spec is 2,000#/ acre using straw mulch. This isn't the green hydroseeder mulch like I think you are talking about, regular straw blown on after hydroseeding. I believe the stuff you're talking about (the green wood pulp mulch) is about 1,000-1,500 #/ acre. If it looks right it probably is right is the best advice I can give. You can maybe go a little thin with the mulch since you're hydroseeding, but best practice is it should be mulched same as if you just broadcast the seed.

[DogwoodTales]

I should clarify that I'm not doing this myself. I'm fishing for others' experience in how thick was their resulting mulch from a professional job.

I'm questioning if the contractor I used was skimpy on the mulch he applied. Seemed a bit thin to me for what I was anticipating in my mind, but I'm not a pro at this so I figured that's just how it is.
That was about 8 weeks ago for a job of about 0.60 of an acre. The grass grew well at first, but thin. A few areas the grass did really well and came in thick, but about 1/3 acre looks like a mini Arizona desert - sparse tufts of grass. My water bills of $200 every 60 days (that's just water, no sewage) testify that I am watering enough. So either he didn't use the right kind of seed for my sunlit yard and/or he didn't apply enough mulch.
So just wondering if anyone here has had a pro hydroseed a yard how thick was the resulting mulch?

[ajkoontz]

To clarify- it should look like any other mulch job you’ve ever seen, wether it was hydroseeded or not, ie- it should look like the Google image search pictures. As you mentioned, mulch is only one factor but you’ve addressed what you can. The resulting bare spots may be due to the mulch, or maybe not, but sounds to me like you’re on the right track.

[BrentDH]

We had about 1 acre of our property hydroseeded about 15 years ago when we first moved in.  It was extremely successful.  I had a highly regarded landscaper do the work.  I know he planted a lot of grass seed with his own tractor and seeder prior to applying the hydroseeding.  My point is that there was more seed involved than just what came from the hydroseeding step.  I think in his mind the advantage of the hydroseeding was more the papery mulch and fertilizer than the actual seed.  We also had an in-ground sprinkler system that he had me run each zone for 10 minutes 4 times per day to just keep the papery mulch damp - not soaked - until it germinated.  It was a long time ago but I recall the layer being just thick enough that I couldn't see the dirt almost anywhere.  When I see it along road ways it looks significantly thinner than that.  Hope that helps.

[goaliedad]

I had a yard hydroseeded about 20 years ago. As I recall the mulch was about 1/4 inch thick??

[toolmiser]

We had our "boulevard" hydroseeded a couple years ago compliments of our city due to street construction. This is in Wisconsin, and in the fall, but it wasn't very thick at all. I like the previous poster's point to apply seed before they hydroseed. I think it would germinate a lot thicker.

[Woodenfish]

If the yard was hydroseeded 8 weeks ago during the heat of summer I can see why the attempt was a failure. It was just poor planning.

[vernonator]

Our last yard was terraseeded - think hydroseed only they used actual compost rather than the green goo. I was about 4" of compost mixed with the seed, and they blew that on. That lawn was golf course quality - weeds were VERY few and far between because the grass was so thick. I would have done it on the new house but we sit up on a "hump" and the vendor said it would not "stick" so we went with sod.

[JosephP]

Odd... hydro seeding is generally considered "ideal" way to seed on slopes. Maybe not the extra thick you described, but traditional hydroseed is great on slopes.