Winter grass

[turtlepiano]

When is it safe to let my adult sulcata on the lawn after over seeding with rye grass for winter? The grass was planted 3 weeks ago and he grazes on it but pulls up a lot of dirt.

 

[Tom]

First, please go into your user profile and add a location so we know where you are.

What sort of soil, and soil amendments were used while seeding? Fertilizers? Weed n' Feed stuff? Did you mix in any soil with added vermiculite or perlite? Was the soil tilled before seeding?

 

[turtlepiano]

I am in Phoenix Arizona. I don’t know how to put that in my profile. There was light amount of fertilizer used in the top soil but not much. Nothing else was mixed in.

 

[Markw84]

As long as there was not pesticide or herbicide (weed and feed is in many fertilizers) then I don't worry about how old the grass is for eating safety. What I do worry about is what you are seeing. I like to let the new grass get established enough to where they do not pull up the roots when they graze. If your soil is quite wet, they can do that for quite a while. But for me, once the overseeded grass is usually 5 weeks old or so, they can start grazing without destroying it all.