Need advice on planting 6-10 acres of grass....

[Makomaker]

We are in the midst of building a house and am trying to plan the grass part. At the end of the project there will probably be about 6-10 acres of grass to plant (depending on tree removal), whether it be seed, hydroseed.

My questions are as follows:

What is best method to actually plant? seed or hydroseed

What kind of grass would be the best for this size property?

And how would you actually apply it, ie aplication method?

Some helpful tips: Let's assume cost is not a parameter in deciding b/t seed or hydroseed. If hydroseed is best, I would be open to purchasing my own machine, doing the work, and selling it afterwards.

I don't plan on having any in ground irrigation available. However, a water truck would be available to get the grass started.

The location is in South Louisiana and the property has equal amounts of shade and sunlight.

Any soil preparation or spading/grading tips would be appreciated. Thanks for your help.

[White Gardens]

I would slit seed. Do half the rate and make two passes over the entire area. 6-10 acres is a lot, so if there are any farmers around, someone might have a small slit seeder (bigger to us) to use. That or contact an ag implement company and they might have a reasonable one to rent.

After your done, over seed to fill in the "rows" from the seeder.

If you go to any ag place, they call them seed or bean drills, not slit seeders.

[Makomaker]

Thanks for the help. It looks like centipede might be my choice, St Aug looks like it is hard to find as a seed to plant?

Is there anyway I can contact you...Thanks

[Turboguy]

St Augustine seed is not only hard to find it doesn't exist, commercially anyway. St Augustine has to be planted by spriging or laid as sod. There is such a thing as seed but at this time it is not practical to go that way. That may change in a few years.

Centepede would be a decent choice for you. It does germinate slow. Some of the newer Bermudas might be a possibiliy as well. I believe Princes and Sahara can be pretty decent. Although I have seeded Centepede and Bermuda a number of times most of my seeding is up here in the north where we don't use those grasses enought so others may have better suggestions.

Either hydro seeding or slit seeding would work for you. With 6 acres to seed I think you are smart in doing it yourself. You could probably buy a seeder on Ebay, seed your lawn and turn around and put it back on Ebay and get most of your money back. If you had someone hydro seed it you are probably looking at somewhere around 12 grand and the material cost is really only a few thousand. There may be a little more "technique" with hydro seeding than with slit seeded but it is not that hard to figure out. Either option should work for you.