Best Time To Plant Lawn Grass Seed


One of the most common mistakes people make when planting their lawn is they plant too early in the year or too late in the year. Both of these times result in too cold of temperatures for good germination or too close to frost season. You can plant cool season grasses (bent, bluegrass, fescue, ryegrass) earlier in the year than you can warm season grasses (bahia, bermuda, buffalo, carpet, centipede, zoysia). However, for both frost season should be completely over or at least 6 weeks away if planting in late summer/early fall. See chart below for specific planting times.

RECOMMENDED SOIL PLANTING TEMPERATURE
TYPE OF GRASS MINIMUM SOIL TEMP TIME BEFORE FROST (FALL PLANTING)
Bahia Grass 65 Degrees 6 Weeks
Bent Grass - Creeping 55 Degrees 6 Weeks
Bent Grass - Colonial 55 Degrees 6 Weeks
Bermuda Grass - Turf 65 Degrees 6 Weeks
Bermuda Grass - Greens 65 Degrees 6 Weeks
Blue Grass - Turf 55 Degrees 8 Weeks
Blue Grass - Greens 55 Degrees 8 Weeks
Buffalo Grass 60 Degrees 10 Weeks
Carpet Grass 65 Degrees 8 Weeks
Centipede 70 Degrees 10 Weeks
Fescue - Tall 55 Degrees 6 Weeks
Fescue - Fine 55 Degrees 8 Weeks
Rye Grass 55 Degrees 5 Weeks
Zoysia Grass 70 Degrees 10 Weeks