When To Plant Grass Seed In The Fall

I wrote a post a while back talking about the best cool season grass seed for heat and drought. At the end of the post, I gave a few recommendations on when to plant grass in the fall. Basically, I said to start planting on October 1, instead of the September 1 that many people recommend.

I am writing this post to reaffirm what I said in my earlier post. We had a hot September here in the Northeast and any grass that was planted probably would not have made it without ample irrigation. If you had enough water, good, but if you didn’t then you may as well have planted the grass in the middle of the Summer.

Today is October 1. It’s been raining for a few days, which means the rains have returned in this area. This is perfect for planting grass. The soil is moist and able to be properly aerated which will allow the seed to germinate faster. Of course, there is always the change of some freak early Winter, but I have seen people around here start their grass planting in November with good results.

We are located in central Connecticut by the way. Of course, New England is a pretty big area and the climate changes dramatically from place to place, but I would rather plant grass in cooler weather as opposed to warmer weather.