April 20, 2018
How long does couch grass take to germinate?
Couch seeds are hard to grow. I planted seeds on the evening of 28 March 2018 (just before Easter) but as write (3 weeks later), barely 2 per cent of the seeds have sprouted.
A lady at Bunnings told me to sprinkle them on the top of the topsoil because the seeds need the sunlight. This was probably not a good idea since the seeds were now very visible to the birds. I should probably have scattered the seeds and then sprinkled some topsoil on top.
Anyway, here’s what happened.
I watered the seeds three times a day. Gentle spray.
During the first two weeks the lawn attracted a lot of birds (up to 12-15 at a time) that ate the seeds. By the end of the second week the birds could not find any more seeds because the few remaining seeds had gone below the soil and become invisible to them. I assume at least some seeds survived. But these few seeds did not sprout for quite some time.
I would have assumed that these seeds would sprout within 2 weeks. But by the end of two weeks only a (very) few seeds – mostly those that were in the shade – sprouted.
I kept watering since I knew there were some areas of the lawn in which birds had not feasted – but even these seeds had not yet sprouted. So this was not simply about the birds having eaten all the seeds.
After around 18 days some more seeds did start sprouting all across the lawn. Now in the beginning of the 4th week I can seeds are going to sprout all across the lawn if one keeps watering. A good number of them have been eaten but at least a few should now come up.
On the 25th day, around 4-5 per cent of the seeds have started sprouting.
In brief, couch grass is particularly difficult to grow and requires 4 weeks to fully germinate.
