jlavado
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Location: Connecticut

Growing Cutting Edge Grass in Connecticut

I have my seeds in the ground! Don't bother with the 800 number you see on TV. I got their "special price" and waited 6 weeks for delivery. Then when I needed much, much more than they sent me, I asked them to put me on their "priority list" and 5 weeks later they never even charged my card. The sad thing is that their warehouse is about 25 minutes from my house in CT. Luckily, I called Cutting Edge themselves and they told me that those people are just a distributor that advertises on TV and that there is a store in my area that sells the seed right off the shelf. I went to Haynes in Oxford CT and they are within 15 minutes of my house! So I was able to just cruise in there and pick up a 44 lb. bag of seed. They had smaller ones as well. The 44 lb. bag is over $300 with tax but I'm hoping this grass will be well worth the money. I have completely tilled my yard and the seeds are in. I plan on finishing the thread I started here and am following their instructions to the T. They tell you to use organic fertilizer so I will be using that. Here is a picture of my bag of seed.

Thanks to the webmaster for the free sample of seed! It was much appreciated.
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20130921_123818.jpg

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webmaster
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Location: Amherst, MA USDA Zone 5a

You're welcome! And thanks for starting the original discussion about Cutting Edge Seeds that started this fun experiment!

Your experience with the seeds is going to be helpful to people in Connecticut and likely the entire New England region. 8)

jlavado
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Location: Connecticut

OK, progress update:

I have fertilized with Scotts Fertilizer for new seed. After 2 weeks the grass is roughly 1 and a half inches high. I have a few bare spots but this could be due to the fact that I may have over-watered, over-fertilized or under-seeded certain areas. I am going to use the rest of the bag to fill in whatever is missing because by now everything should have germinated. Germination began in a week as expected. I have a few weeks left before the frost hits, so the rest of the seeds need to hit the ground. Attached are pictures before planting, and at the 2-week mark:
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Freshly tilled, invisible fence wire buried, before planting seed
Freshly tilled, invisible fence wire buried, before planting seed
2 weeks after planting
2 weeks after planting

cginest
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I just planted a 5 lb bag in Denver, CO on about 800 sq ft. Mostly overseeding but also to address some bad spots. Its been about 5 days and nothing has appeared so far, but our average temperatures have been in the 50s, quite a bit lower than normal. I'm worried the temperatures will kill it off before it has a chance to take.

I had the lawn aerated, then spent about 2 hours with a sharpened piece of rebar stabbing some more smaller holes in the spots that needed attention.

Next, I spread about 1/4-1/2" of sandy top soil to amend my heavily clay based soil, followed by the seed, then a light coating of steer manure (the bagged stuff from HD). I put a larger amount of seed on the spots that needed attention, then spread the vigoro seed starter fertilizer on the whole thing.

2 weeks prior to all that I used an iron supplement made here in CO called "Revive" to condition the soil.

Ive been trying to keep the soil moist but not soggy since planting, and I havent been watering on days when its too cold.

I'll let you all know it turns out...

jlavado
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Location: Connecticut

3 weeks after planting, definitely have some bare spots in places (mostly in the backyard), but the grass that came up is beginning to establish. I overseeded with whatever I still had in the bag today... I'll most likely swing by the store and pick up another 44 lb. bag in the spring if necessary to overseed the yard. I'll keep it going with the overseeding until I have full coverage. Here's what you should expect after 3 weeks:
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Week 3
Week 3
week3.png (126.26 KiB) Viewed 3932 times
Close-up
Close-up

jlavado
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Location: Connecticut

It doesn't show very well in the picture, but some of the grass is probably due for a mowing. Of course that isn't going to happen for another few weeks since I recently overseeded some trouble spots. They are a little more pronounced in this picture since I took it just before watering the lawn. This is going to be my last update on this thread until next year. I'm sure you all get the drift with these pictures. It's starting to get cold and I don't expect any significant growth until the spring.
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Week 4
Week 4

cginest
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Looks good!

Ive had zero luck getting anything to come up in CO. Not sure if its been too cold or if the squirrels have picked the seed clean or what the deal is, but I cant see a single visible sign of new growth. It only cost me around $100, so that part couldve been worse.

I'll try again in the spring I suppose.

jlavado
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Location: Connecticut

*UPDATE*

OK, so it's been 9 months, and an unusually cold year. Let me go down the list of claims they have made for this grass:

STOP constant watering - I have not watered my grass once since it has come up, I just let the rain do its work. So far, the grass has stayed a nice dark color. But there ARE some dying blades. The grass also stayed nice and dark during this past winter, which was BRUTALLY COLD all the way through May.

STOP constant mowing - COMPLETE BS. My grass grows just as fast as it used to. I still have to mow every week or else it gets out of control. The might be a slight difference from before where it grows a LITTLE BIT slower than the old grass but it is negligible at best. Unfortunately, this was the #1 reason I planted this stuff and I have found out that this is just an outright LIE.

Salt resistant - Nope. The grass by the curb has performed the worst, and that is where the plow piles up the snow from the streets. You can't see it in the pic but that's where the weeds are most dominant. Also that area by the curb has turned yellow but seems to be in a recovery phase now.

STOP constant fertilizing - Can't comment on this yet because I am having professional lawn care done since this is a new lawn.

Weed resistant - Not true at all. Even with professional treatment I still have weeds. Not as much as I used to, but I have more nut grass than I have ever had before.

Self-repairing - So far, this seems to be hit or miss, but I have noticed some areas coming back from the dead after my dog has done his damage.


So there you have it. I don't know when this grass is supposed to "slow down" but it hasn't happened yet. I have the rest of my life to find out. There are plenty of areas where you can see brown grass blades mixed in with green. Would I buy this again? The answer is a resounding HELL NO. It's great grass but definitely not worth the $300+ for a large bag of seed. Not worth it at all! It DOES look better than the grass in most of my neighbors' yards, but for the money I spent I could have just buried irrigation pipes and kept it watered. I'm hoping this stuff will eventually pay off, but aside from the fact that it looks good, you can get good looking grass without shelling out big bucks for this stuff.

Like I said, it's better than most grass out there but don't get your hopes up.
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9 months later
9 months later

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rainbowgardener
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Thanks very much for coming back and giving us the update! Very helpful.

Lawn guy
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After reading the review above I have a very positive feeling about the cutting edge grass and I will explain why.

Just a comment, if you are still fertilizing the grass as you stated the same as you were even though the company states that you shouldn't or don't need to then of course your lawn is going to grow fast,

if you constantly add nitrogen to your lawn then the lawn will continue to grow. By reducing the need of nitrogen and water the lawn doesn't grow as fast which is the whole point of the product and the beauty of its design.

For example, if you fertilize your lawn then it begins to grow, then you need to water your lawn to make up for the growth, then because your lawn is growing fast you will need to mow your lawn opening your lawn up for disease and other issues and then you will need to repeat stuck in a cycle that the cutting edge is designed to get you out of.

By ignoring the instructions and fertilizing your lawn as you would have with regular grass you essentially turned your low maintenance lawn into an ordinary lawn by forcing it to grow.

Less fertilizer means less water which means less mowing.

So after reading your report and hearing you didn't need to water all summer and you did fertilize on top of that (which is a nono regardless of the turf brand) I am very happy to hear your results.

I will definitely be buying this product in a couple weeks.

BTW, your lawn looks beautiful!
I couldn't see any salt damage to your lawn but would assume that heavy amounts of salt as you explained the snow was piles up on your lawn would probably kill any plant or lawn.

Thank you for the update

jlavado
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Joined: Mon Oct 03, 2011 12:08 am
Location: Connecticut

Just make sure you cover your grass completely with hay once you plant. I have noticed that the germination rate is about 5% for uncovered seed and about 90% for fully covered seed. That is probably why I had so many weeds. I had some spots that were sparsely covered with grass.

I didn't post pics but with the semi-drought we had over the summer my grass was very brown and near death. What brought it back was the fact that I didn't mow it for 4 straight weeks, then another 2 and now it's back in business.

The plan was to keep the grass maintained for the first year, to battle the weeds but that is done with now. Even the manufacturer will tell you to fertilize with organic fertilizer. We will see what happens next year when the routine maintenance is gone but I have some spots (especially by the curb) that need new seed. Unfortunately I had been too busy with the pool over the past month and missed my window to plant for the fall.

jlavado
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Joined: Mon Oct 03, 2011 12:08 am
Location: Connecticut

Lawn guy wrote:After reading the review above I have a very positive feeling about the cutting edge grass and I will explain why.

Just a comment, if you are still fertilizing the grass as you stated the same as you were even though the company states that you shouldn't or don't need to then of course your lawn is going to grow fast,

if you constantly add nitrogen to your lawn then the lawn will continue to grow. By reducing the need of nitrogen and water the lawn doesn't grow as fast which is the whole point of the product and the beauty of its design.

For example, if you fertilize your lawn then it begins to grow, then you need to water your lawn to make up for the growth, then because your lawn is growing fast you will need to mow your lawn opening your lawn up for disease and other issues and then you will need to repeat stuck in a cycle that the cutting edge is designed to get you out of.

By ignoring the instructions and fertilizing your lawn as you would have with regular grass you essentially turned your low maintenance lawn into an ordinary lawn by forcing it to grow.

Less fertilizer means less water which means less mowing.

So after reading your report and hearing you didn't need to water all summer and you did fertilize on top of that (which is a nono regardless of the turf brand) I am very happy to hear your results.

I will definitely be buying this product in a couple weeks.

BTW, your lawn looks beautiful!
I couldn't see any salt damage to your lawn but would assume that heavy amounts of salt as you explained the snow was piles up on your lawn would probably kill any plant or lawn.

Thank you for the update
So are you buying this and planting or are you just trolling the thread?

I wasn't fertilizing the grass, I was putting down lime, crabgrass control, organic fertilizer (as per instructions) and still got the results I reported.

Let's see some progress with pics from your yard or else I'm led to believe that you're just a rep from Cutting Edge! I did this with lots of optimism and have a lot of negativity after following through with their directions.

kthor07
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any new opinion on your grass? less mowing? less watering?

jlavado
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Joined: Mon Oct 03, 2011 12:08 am
Location: Connecticut

kthor07 wrote:any new opinion on your grass? less mowing? less watering?
The grass came up quickly and looks great. I do not water it at all. I don't need to fertilize. I do put down lime, and halts for crabgrass and that's pretty much it. I may use an application of Ringer organic once or twice a year, and some grub control in June. However...

Less mowing? NO. In fact, I find myself mowing twice a week. I am going to take a picture of how much it grows in 5 days, because frankly I can't wait any longer than that before it becomes a problem. It gets WAY out of control. If you hear anything about mowing twice a summer, it's coming from someone within the company because it is an outright lie. I don't know if the time is coming where it is supposed to slow down after a couple of years, but given that I am getting 4 inch growth in a week, it's safe to say that there is no truth to this grass growing to a "dwarf height" unless they are referring to an actual dwarf. I have to mow so often that I think I would rather use regular grass from home depot and have to maintain it because this is clearly not the answer if you are looking for maintenance free. Maybe as far as fertilizing is concerned it's maintenance free but you will be mowing twice as often. It looks great, but I am mowing at my 2nd highest setting and am constantly playing catch-up with the mower.

jlavado
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Joined: Mon Oct 03, 2011 12:08 am
Location: Connecticut

I just mowed a part of my lawn before taking this pic with my phone so you can see how high I mow vs how high the grass got in 5 days.
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5 days since last mowing (behind mower)
5 days since last mowing (behind mower)



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