What Is a Slit Seeder?

Whether you are a homeowner or a landscaping professional, there will be times when you need to reseed a lawn. For those jobs, a slit seeder is required to deposit the seed and maximize growth of new grass.

A slit seeder is a garden machine used to seed new or existing lawns. Slit seeders have vertical blades that cut parallel slits in the ground or turf and deposit seeds within the slits. Many slit seeders also have a roller, that will compress the slit and promote seed contact with the soil.

A homeowner will typically use a slit seeder to reseed areas of a lawn where the grass has died. This could be caused by disease, weeds or disease conditions. Overseeding is also used to increase the vitality of a lawn or to add different grass types to an existing lawn. Professionals may use a slit seeder on a golf course or other heavily traveled area.

Position the slit seeder in one corner of the area to be seeded. Fill the hopper with the grass seed of your choice and set the application rate at one-half the total seed concentration you wish to apply. Run the seeder across the area, moving in tight parallel rows. When the area is completely seeded, turn the seeder 90 degrees and run over the entire area again.

Grass seed may be applied by sowing it directly on the top of the ground a slit seeder is advantageous in that the grass seed falls into slits in the earth. This enhances ground contact with the seed, minimizes seed runoff in the event of heavy rain and reduces the seed loss to seed-eating birds.

There are two different types of slit seeders. For homes and small areas, there is a walk-behind model. This utilizes powered blades to create the slits in the turf. Larger, tractor-mounted models do not use powered blades but instead utilize round blades to cut into the earth like a pizza cutter. This produces better results on an area like a golf course because the disks make a higher quality cut and do not disrupt the turf, as spinning blades do.