It’s important to know what you’re getting when you buy grass seed but labels can be confusing! Here’s a label off of one of our bags of grass seed followed by a breakdown of what to look for on the label!
A – Name of the blend: In this case we have had this one custom blended and it’s sold as “Gary’s Premium Lawn Mixture”!
B – Pure Seed %: How much and what kind of seed is in the blend! If you’ve ever paid close attention to the labels, you may notice the percentages and seed varieties vary from year to year and occasionally they will even vary from lot to lot. “Same” blend, different variety. A few of the main factors include availability, cost, and improved seed being introduced. While the specific seed may be slightly different, you can rest assured there will not be a visual difference in your lawn!
C – Where the seed was grown: Oregon is most common!
D – Germination Percentage: This tells you how much of the seed should come up when planted. In this case 90 out of every 100 seed should sprout! Typically germination percent of good quality grass see falls in the 85 – 90%. Occasionally you will see it as high as 95%.
E – What else is in the the blend? Pure seed percentages will never add up to 100%. A good quality seed blend will normally be 98% + pure seed.
- Other crop seed – wind, birds, and animals from time to time spread seed from one field to the other resulting in some “other crop seed”. The occasional seed left behind in machinery may also cause this.
- Inert matter – dust, dirt, and rocks are the most common found in grass seed.
- Weed seed – obviously 0% weed seed is preferred however it not uncommon to see a fraction of a percent of weed seed. As with other crop seed, wind and animals are the most common culprits of weed seed. Most grass seed growing fields are burned off between crops to eliminate
F – Test date / Sell by date: This section is self explanatory however we often get asked how long grass seed keeps? As a general rule of green thumb, once grass seed reaches its expiration date, germination percent will decrease by about 5% per year. This assumes the grass seed has been has been kept dry. Irregardless of how you store grass seed, the longer you keep it the less it will germinate.
G – Who blended the seed: This may or may not always appear one the label. Brand Names typically don’t include this info.
Now you know a little more about how to confirm that you are getting quality seed! But wait, the big box stores and brand names have a few tricks up their sleeves… sometimes their seed will be “coated” which adds weight to bag of seed resulting in you receiving less seed for the same amount of weight. Theoretically coated seed will be quicker/better germinating however in the right conditions, this is not necessary. The second common trick is bagging with “off the wall” weights such as 36 or 40 lbs. and charging the same or slightly less than what you would pay elsewhere for a 50 lb. bag. The bag still looks big but it’s really all that big… let the buyer beware!
