What is Hydroseeding?
People ask us all the time... What is Hydroseeding? The best way to describe it is: sometimes when you see construction on the Highway 401, on the slopes on the side of the highway, you will see the slopes all painted green, this is called Hydroseeding.
Hydroseeding is a mixture of mulch, water soluable fertilizer, grass seed, and tackifier, all mixed in the proper ratios with water. This is the basic mixture. You can add other additives to retain moisture,etc. There are 2 types of mulch: Wood or Paper, as well a mixture of wood and paper. We at Kramer Hydroseeding have experimented with different recipes. We prefer to use 100% wood mulch with tackifier already in the mix. It is a little more expensive, but does a better job. On steep slopes we will add more tackifier. We only use premium quality grass seed mixtures, and we add more seed than required in the mix. (about 40% more) We find you get more seeds germinating and a thicker lawn. Then the mixture gets sprayed onto the soil with a hydrolic hydroseeding machine.
The mixture can be described as a spit ball. Remember when you were a kid and made spit balls in school, threw them on the ceiling, they went splat and stuck on the ceiling. Hydroseeding is very similar, it splats on the ground and gets stuck in place, holding the seeds in place. There is a risk in a heavy rain downpour, that the mixture could get washed away in some areas. Also it is the customers responsibility to keep the newly seeded area moist. Under ideal conditions you should see grass growing in 7 – 14 days, and cutting the grass for the first time in about 6 weeks. If you have any further questions about hydroseeding, please give our office a call. We service southern Ontario, within a 2 hour drive of Toronto. Hydroseeding really starts getting cost effective when your property is larger than 5,000 square feet.
Beware, some companies will lower their price by diluting the ingredients in the mixture, primarily less grass seed. We will not do that, we only believe in doing a quality job.
