Yellow Rattle sowing advice

[King Edward]

I collected some yellow rattle seeds yesterday and I'm wondering whether to sow them now, or if it's best to wait until later in the year. The area I'm planning to put them is a long-established lawn where the grass growth isn't very vigorous, and which already has quite a decent amount of flowers in it such as Bird's-foot Trefoil, Red Clover, Yarrow, Cat's-ear and others.

I don't want to mow the grass now, since it's flowering nicely at the moment, so would it be better to wait until after I mow it once the flowers have finished?

Also, if I store the seed, should it be refrigerated or just kept cool and dry until sowing?

[ChrisJB]

Sowing yellow rattle direct to a lawn or meadow is unlikely to work, due to the overwhelming competition from grasses. I can only speak from experience, but it didn't work for me. I sowed them in very small plug pots into a normal potting compost and as they grew and got bigger I potted them on before introducing them to a lawn when they were of a suitable size to withstand the competition. I sowed the seeds pretty much soon after I gathered them and just left the pots outside to face the elements. It was a few years ago now, but as I recall the seedlings appeared the following spring.
Incidentally the lawn you have selected to introduce them sounds perfect.
Good luck!

Chris

[Adam Cheeseman]

Hi King Edward.
Rattle seed is best stored in a paper bag until you are ready to scatter the seed. It is best if to wait until you have cut the grass and raked off the risings. Once this has been done you can just scatter the seed onto the ground. I have had great success doing it this way but obviously every site is different. Being out over winter will be sufficien tfor them to be chilled and they should grow next spring. You will probably require a good amount of seed to get things going initially though. You may wish to scarify the ground first to increase likelihood of germination, but in my experience this isn't always necessary.

You say there aren't many grasses in your sward. Are you adding the rattle to increase diversity or just control the grasses you have. If you have fine-leaved grasses such as fescues then it isn't really necessary to add rattle, which is ideal for controlling the more tussocky perennial species that can crowd out other flora.

Cheers,

Adam

[Johnny Redgate]

Lawns usually have a tight sward due to repeated mowings so my advice would be mow and scarify then sow, and maybe trample in. Mow and sow probably in July although later maybe OK. Don't wait for the grass to grow again before sowing. You could try treatments in patches e.g. scarifying or not. Traditional hay meadow swards are quite open at ground level and you can often see a little bare soil after cutting. That's what I'd aim for.

[King Edward]

Thanks for the advice on this. Having separated the seed from the chaff, I've ended up with 31g which should be enough so I'll store that as suggested till later in the year. There's a decent mix of grasses there at the moment, including quite a bit of Red Fescue, Yorkshire Fog, Sweet Vernal Grass and others, but it is quite dense in places albeit not that tall so I think it might well benefit from the Yellow Rattle if I can get it established. Plus, it's a species I quite like anyway.

There are other areas of lawn elsewhere in the garden where I'd quite like to establish it as well, so I might go back and collect some more seed. I'll see if I can get some photos up of the different areas, one of which especially is pretty vigorous at the moment so I'm not sure how well the Rattle will establish.

[b0mbus]

I have had a lot of success with introducing yellow rattle onto a lawn. I sowed in the autumn after cutting the grass to 2 cm. I also read that trampling the seeds in is very effective, so I pranced around the garden with my dog for a good 30 minutes, dragging my feet across the ground and stomping around. A lot of them came up to the extent that I can harvest loads of seeds for next year.

I got my advice from Goren Farm who I also got the seeds from (Yellow Rattle Seeds, Native Wild flower farm., Wildflower Seeds shop online specialising in Yellow Rattle seed). They told me that it was very important also, to cut the grass in February, so that when Yellow Rattle germinates in March the grass isn't too long so as to smother the seedlings.