If you've already got Bermuda everywhere, it will fill in any bare spots. If you have a large bare spot, you can speed the process by getting sprigs of Bermuda from another part of the lawn and transplanting them into the bare spot.

I did as much research as an outsider can do on the web earlier this season about it (researched patents, etc). It is reasonably similar to what Pennington did. The coating on the seed supposedly retains water better and allows for a skipped day on watering the ungerminated seed. I don't know the Bermuda varieties, but with the cool-season grass seed you really need to read the label. The grass seed that you are buying is only 48% grass seed. The rest of the bag is the coating. I wish I could sell less than half of the actual product for more money. Great marketing! Not as bad as the EZ-Seed stuff, though - that's only 8% actual seed by their own analysis. I think they're playing to the average American that never reads labels.

I've heard about using coffe grounds, so how do they give them to you. Do they put them in a great big bucket? Do you have to pull out the filters? Do you let the coffee grounds dry out first? I'm interested in this, but wondering how dirty is this job and how often you do it?

Oh, and for the record, I mow my bermudagrass at 1.5 to 2", fairly low for bermuda, but not extremely low. I always mulch mow, rarely water (it never went dormant last summer due to lack of water, yet everyone in my area talks about the drought last summer, perhaps the organic thing works!) unless we've gone two weeks without rain or so.

The "water smart" thing if it means the seed requires less water to germinate then that only affects germination, unless they are genetically altering the seed I don't see how that affects the turf. After closer examination of the Scotts site, it looks to me that "Water Smart" is nothing more than a trade mark for "good cultural practices," ie. water deeply yet infrequently, grasscycle (mulch mow) and mow cool season grasses as high as possible and warm season grasses as low as possible. Duh!

This water smart trademark appears to be gimmmick and is misleading at best. Just for that, I wouldn't buy their stuff.

This company is not known to be all that environmentally friendly. Over the years the USEPA has issued numerous stop sale orders of products this company has made due to mislabeleing. They also have some connection with Monsanto since the glyphosate product is now sold through this company.

113lyons,
Thanks for posting. This does answer part of my question. Here's the deal. Scotts has this new technology to increase seed germination rate and do that with less water. That's great news. However, I feel they are misleading the consumer into thinking this technology makes the turf, once established, require less water. From my estimation, there is no technology here that will make the lawn require less water, but will require less water for seed germination. Moreover the company seems to be branding this "water smart" technology broadly across many products when if you read the fine print "water smart" means mowing high, mulch mowing/grasscycling, not mowing more than 1/3 of the plant, watering deeply and ifrequently. That's not a technology, that's called good cultural practices and I'm wandering how they trademark that!

kmnhiramga

I didn't think this at all. I purchased two 40 lb bags of Scotts Sun and Shade seeds with watersmart technology two days ago and it was obvious to me that they coat the seeds to hold more water during the germination process. The bag even has a picture of a cross section of a seed with the coating on it and it tells you that it absorbs 40% more water so that you can skip a day of watering.

The jury's still out regarding whether or not it will perform as advertised as I just put it down with fertilizer two days ago (I'm praying for a 60% germination rate), but I think it's more than obvious what they're selling. Again, there's a picture of a cross section of a seed with the coating on it. Now, hopefully it actually performs as advertised. Again, if I get a 60% germination rate or better, I'll call it a success.

Thanks, lyons. That answered some questions I had, also.

I bought some last fall for overseeding because it was the one that had the seed mix I was looking for (mostly perennial ryegrass). I'm not sure if it germinated better because I don't overseed that often and I'm not sure what to compare it to. But I liked that it's white and easier to see if I missed a spot and also the birds don't seem interested in it all.

This is a two-year old thread I just came across, but I have additional questions about Scotts Water Smart and thought I'd jump in here. Scotts Water Smart is now something beyond a seed coating. Scotts is promoting it in their fertilizers, and if you use Scotts Lawn Care service, they apply it as a spray. I understand the grass seed coating, as discussed in posts above, but I don't understand how it's now a liquid that can be sprayed on an existing lawn to make the lawn require less water. Does anyone know more about this? I tried searching the Scotts website, but all I could find was marketing mumbo-jumbo with no substance or answers. Thanks.

Once again, this company is not a good organic company. The products they sell are made with non renewable resources and are detrimental to your environment. There is no good reason for an organic gardener/farmer to even discuss any of the products this company makes except to tell people to not buy them.

I know this is an old thread but here is a good article with some facts about the ineffectiveness of these seed coatings, particularly on tall fescues. I have been doing irrigation for 4 years. We run into a lot of customers who insist they don't have to water twice a day because they bought some overpriced Scott's garbage and we often get called back to reprogram their controller when none of their seed germinates. http://www.sroseed.com/resources/pdfs/articles/SeedCoatingPaper.pdf

Old thread, but I figured I would throw in my 2 cents. I have actually started a yard of almost 3/4 of an acre with this seed. 2 years later, I am pleased. By no means is the yard outstanding (yet), but that will come with time and caring for the Bermuda that I do have. I will say that I have tried 2 different methods on the lines of the water retention of the seed. I have an area that has sprinklers and I watered 4 times a day for approx. 5-10 minutes a station and had very good germination rates. I also have an area that has no sprinklers. A year later bought more of this seed and tried to hand water, morning and evening for almost a month. I had very little germination on this area and the purchase was pretty much a lose.

So my opinion of the water retention of this seed is minimal in my opinion, you still have to water the recommended amount of any bermuda seed to keep the seed wet throughout the day. Granted I am in Texas and summers, when Bermuda needs to be sowed, are usually scorching. As far as the grass quality, it is ok. There are better varieties out there from what I understand, but I need something quick and cost effective to grow grass in a large area. I am please with what I have, but there are better options as far as grass quality goes. Either way, you still need to water, coating or no coating....