Before                                                         After

What is Hydroseeding?

Hydroseeding was developed in the 1920’s as a method to economically seed large scale areas, while having a higher germination rates than conventional seeding methods of the time. Hydroseeding in its simplest form is the application of seed by hydraulic process, in other words to apply seed with water as the means of spreading it. However, most hydroseeding applications utilize a mulch carrier which provides uniform mixing of the seed with the water, and provides benefits once on the ground that we will discuss later.

The mulch carrier can be composed of wood, paper, straw, coconut, synthetic, peatmoss, compost fibres or many different combinations of these. These fibres are often dyed a green color to offer the hydroseeding applicator the advantage of a color contrast to the ground when spraying, this insures a uniform and even application of the product and seed. Often natural glues or tackifiers are added to the mix to provide better bonding between the soil particles and the mulch fibres, allowing the mulch layer to remain in place during wind and rain events.

What is the benefit of hydroseeding over other seeding methods?

The main advantage of hydroseeding over conventional seeding applications if the addition of a mulch layer to the soil.  This mulch layer will act to provide protection from birds eating the newly applied seeds, wind from blowing the seed and soil away, retain moisture, and reduce the impact of splash erosion from rain drops and watering which can cause soil crusting, which inhibits plant growth.

Uses of Hydroseeding?

Conventional Hydroseeding applications can be applied on slopes up to 3:1 steepness. Once slopes become steeper than 3:1 either a Bonded Fiber Matrix or an erosion control blanket must be used to stabilize soils. Hydroseeding can be used on any properly prepared soils up to 3:1 slopes where you are not expecting concentrated water flows, such as ditches. If you wish to hydroseed a ditch or other drainage area, you have to either treat the areas of flow with erosion control blankets or divert the flow of waters until your newly seeded soils have fully established and rooted.