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How To Transplant Grass – Ultimate Guide

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Tending a small garden is the most creative and rewarding thing you can do. Normally, there are many ways to combine various patio décor pieces and plants to create beautiful, impressive, and neat solutions for your garden.

If you are passionate about gardening, you need to know about transplanting grass. Essentially, it is feasible and not a difficult task. However, planning is the most important thing. The day you plan to transplant the grass is a cloudy day because the grass won’t dry out.

How Do You Know When It’s Time to Transplant the Plant?

Over time, the plant assimilates most of the nutrients contained in the soil. The soil mixture will deplete and, for the plant to continue to grow and develop, transplantation into fresh soil is required.

And over time, the soil cakes and reduces air permeability. When enough oxygen is not supplied to the root system, the plant begins to feel worse. That is why you cannot do without a regular transplant.  

The best time for transplanting is the growing season, mainly the spring and summer months when the daylight hours are maximum. In late autumn and winter, transplanting is possible only in emergency cases because the planned transplant will do more harm than good at this time.

March and April are considered ideal months for transplanting because the plants move from winter dormancy to a period of active growth. So, the expansion of housing conditions will additionally stimulate their rapid growth and development.

But it is worth remembering that some plants grow too quickly, and the second transplant in late summer and early autumn will benefit them. Also, if you missed the spring update, take a closer look at your plant. It can show that it needs a bigger pot and would not like to wait until spring.

A plant that needs transplanting gives the following signals:

  • The soil began to dry out after watering much faster than before
  • The roots are visible through the drainage holes
  • The green plant has ceased to delight you with new leaves and shoots (but if it is late autumn in the yard, this sign is not indicative)

How to Transplant Grass

1. Conduct soil analysis

Do a soil analysis to figure out how best to prepare your lawn soil. For soil analysis, laboratories that provide such services can be involved. You can find them in advertisements. 

Also, you can purchase a special test kit to test the soil yourself. Take several soil samples at once from different plot parts under the lawn and at different depths. This should be closer to the surface at a depth of 20–25 cm and deeper. 

2. Loosen the soil and provide it with a proper slope

It is necessary to loosen the soil after removing the old lawn in one of the ways you choose. This allows you to fix any existing slope problems. The soil should slope away from the house in all directions. The slope should be about 2 cm per meter.

Use a rake when grade adjustment is minimal. Water the soil and cover puddled areas with soil from high places. Prepared soil around the perimeter should be flush with paved paths or courtyards.

If you are going to frame your lawn with any structural elements (for example, a patio), adjust the slope of the soil so that the lawn itself is about 5 cm below the fixed objects.

3. Enrich the soil

Since you are starting from scratch, you can directly access the soil to prepare it for transplanting grass. Apply manure, lime, sulfur, or fertilizer to the soil to prepare it for a new lawn. 

Do not loosen the soil too much. It would be best to avoid crusting on the soil surface, which will interfere with the seedlings. The soil should not be too compacted; otherwise, it will negatively affect the transplanted grass.

Enrich the soil How To Transplant Grass
Enriching the soil with calcium via Flickr.com

4. Remove the plant carefully from the old pot

If the grass grew in technical plastic, you could slightly squeeze its walls in several places to make the earth easier to move away from them. As a last resort, the pot can be carefully cut with sharp scissors.

If you are using the transshipment method, at this stage, you can place the plant, along with an earthen lump, in the center of a new area with a pre-prepared drainage layer and fill the space on the sides with soil, tamping it in the process.

If you plan a classic transplant, carefully remove the soil from the roots, which will crumble easily. You do not need to set yourself the task of cleaning the roots as much as possible, and even more so, rinsing them. 

Water procedures are needed only in the most advanced cases when the soil is infected with parasites, or the root system is badly rotted. If the plant grows healthy and in suitable soil, it is enough to shake off only the soil that easily departs from the roots.

5. Inspect the roots

Inspect the roots before planting and if you see damaged or rotten areas, cut them off with sharp scissors or pruning shears. Next, you need to disinfect the sections with the crushed activated carbon or cinnamon.

6. Transplant the grass

After all the manipulations, the grass must be carefully transplanted in a new area, gradually sprinkling with fresh earth. You do not need to deeply bury the plant but leave its trunk at about the same level as the old pot.

In adding soil, gently tamp the soil with your fingers to push it between the roots, but at the same time, do not injure the roots. 

Do not leave air pockets because at the first watering, the earth will settle, and you will have to fill up the soil. To compact the earth evenly, tap the pot lightly on a horizontal surface.

7. Watering

When transplanting is complete, it is now worth taking care of the grass after replacing the soil. Not all plants should be watered abundantly immediately after transplanting. 

Grasses that require moderate watering, that is, the soil dries out a few centimeters deep between watering, should not be watered for the first two to three days. 

The flower will tighten the microtrauma of the root system, and moisture will only interfere with this process. At this time, it is better to spray more often.

It is better to water tropical and moisture-loving grass immediately, as the dry period will become an additional stress factor.

8. Apply fertilizer

A garden store consultant can help you choose the most suitable fertilizer for your grass. Sprinkle the fertilizer at the base, spread it with the back of a fan rake, and then cover everything with a thin layer of organic mulch if hot and dry weather is expected. 

9. Take good care of your lawn for the first 4-6 weeks

Do not walk on a young grass for the first 4 to 6 weeks after transplanting.  If after six weeks the problem of weeds on the lawn is present, remove them. 

Targeted herbicide application is more effective than hand weeding, but avoid using herbicides too often. Most broadleaf weed killers can kill grasses when overused.


Conclusion

Transplanting grass is inevitably stressful for the plant, so you should not worry too much if it does not grow for some time after transplanting. 

When the adaptation of the right process, it will catch up. Don’t worry if a few of the lower leaves turn yellow or fall off. Follow the above steps, and you will find the grass green.