Ask Dave Epstein: Why won't my grass seed germinate?

Paris Alston: This is GBH's Morning Edition. Even with the clouds throughout the day, yesterday was gorgeous and today is shaping up to be even nicer. GBH meteorologist and gardening expert Dave Epstein is with us now to talk more about the weather forecast and to answer your questions. Hey there Dave, good morning.

Dave Epstein: Good morning. Good to be here, Paris.

Alston: Good to have you with us, as always. So, Dave, what do you think? I mean, this weather is pretty nice, right? I mean, are we in the full swing of spring?

Epstein: Yeah. I mean, spring's been going on now for a couple of months. And as you and I have talked about, I think people's expectation of spring is completely unrealistic for New England. So, yeah, we get these warm days where temperatures get well into the 70s, and then we get cool days where it's staying in the 50s and 60s, and we've got both ahead this week. But we've entered summer in terms of the sun at this point. It is now solar summer. That began just a couple of days ago. And so here we are, in the throes of the longest or greatest amount of daylight of the entire year.

Alston: Okay, so Dave, I have to tell you, I am there. I need sunshine specifically on May 18th, I because I'm planning to be outside all day. And so I'm hoping the solar summer spells good news for that day. But even if it does or doesn't, it's still not quite shorts season yet. We could still see some of those cooler days that you mentioned.

Epstein: Oh, yeah. No, absolutely. I mean, it's May 7th, so we can definitely get some cool days, and we've got some cooler days coming up here this week. We've got showers moving in here for Wednesday. And we'll also have tomorrow afternoon. There might even be the rumble of thunder. And then we get a tiny break. And then another round of rain here Thursday afternoon and night into Friday. So it does look like a relatively wet and cool pattern. But enjoy today. Sun up today, by the way, Paris, 5:31 a.m., setting at 7:51 p.m. We are now up to 14 hours and 19 minutes of daylight, so the most we get is just over 15 hours, about 15 hours and seven minutes, depending on exactly where you are listening from. So we're not going to even gain another hour of daylight at this point. Solar summer running from May 5th all the way through August 5th. And that's the period of time when we have the longest amount of daylight. And you really don't increase very much. And the sun this time of year is very strong. It's as strong as it would be in early August, even late July here, by the time we get to the middle of the month. So this time of year you need to be using sunscreen and all of that if you're going to be outside, even on cloudy days. If it's pouring, probably not. But on cloudy, sort of high clouds, that UV light does get through really easily, so you need the sunscreen.

Alston: Certainly a reminder. Even when we have the cloud cover, we still need that protection. And yeah, Dave, on my drive in this morning, I noticed that the sky was pretty bright given, you know, it was in the 4:00 hour there, but that told me that we would be having that early sunrise coming. So good to know we're getting more stretches of daylight. So Dave, we do have a listener question from the garden. It's a question from Joe, who says, I've recently seeded my lawn to cover some larger bare spots, and I'm not seeing much germination. It's been a couple weeks, about 14 days to be exact. And I must admit, I have had the seeds dry a few times due to some dry days. In addition, I planted just when we had those nights with frost. Any advice?

Epstein: Yeah, so the frost probably didn't do a number. Grass seed's very particular on germinating. One, it needs fairly warm ground to get going. It also can't dry out completely. So what you want is you want to kind of — what I do is I moisten it in the morning, let it dry out a little bit during the day, and then I moisten it late day, around 4 or 5 o'clock. That keeps it moist through the overnight and into the morning hours. If it's too wet, it won't germinate because the seeds won't pop out because they think I hey, I don't need to throw out roots because I'm wet enough. If it's too dry, it won't be able to kind of break that seed coat down and pop out the roots. Also make sure the seed was new. Grass seed is not good for, you know, years and years and years. Sometimes I find stuff in the basement that is 7 or 8 years old. It's not going to germinate very well. And it needs to be lightly covered. Another trick you can do is you could put a little piece of burlap over it, and that helps keep the moisture in, and will help to germinate the grass seed.

Alston: And real quick here, Dave, what's going in your garden or any tips as the seasons change for the garden?

Epstein: Yeah. So I planted onions this week, which are going into the garden. I've planted some broccoli and I'll probably put, we're coming up on Mother's Day weekend. This is the time of year after we get by this wet stretch, I will probably start putting in tomatoes and peppers. I hold off on basil until late month just because cool wet weather and basil do not mix. And, so do it in June.

Alston: All right, well, that is GBH meteorologist Dave Epstein. Dave. Thank you.

Epstein: You're welcome.

Alston: You're listening to GBH News.