I finally got around to running a somewhat scientific side-by-side review of Scotts EZ Seed Turf Builder product vs my own fast method for growing grass.
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Scotts EZ Seed is now available from Amazon.com!
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Scotts claims their EZ Seed product can grow grass on a brick and I’ve even seen a few demonstrations in the stores where that appears to be the case. All you have to do is keep the product wet and it will eventually start growing.
So I decided to test their “grow grass on a brick” claim because while it sounds outrageous it really isn’t a very far-fetched idea. But first, we have to talk about what we have here.
What Is Scott’s EZ Seed?
If you buy some Scott’s EZ Seed at a local store the first thing you’ll be struck with his how light the package is. You expect it to feel like you’re picking up a big container of bird seed or grass seed, but it’s really much lighter than that. While a similarly sized container of seed might weigh 8 pounds or more, the Scott’s EZ seed only weighs 3.75 pounds.
Pouring out a little pile of Scotts EZ Seed shows you that it really appears to be made up of only two things: grass seed and little brown pellets. While the grass seed might be designed to use less water, it still just looks like normal seed. The brown pellets, which look and feel a little bit like brown clay kitty litter, are the real stars of this mix.
The pellets are apparently a mixture of time-release fertilizer and an extra-absorbent growing material. The claim is that you can pretty much spread this stuff anywhere that grass will grow and then just keep it moist and add sunlight. The grass seed will use the moisture from the soil material as well as the fertilizer to start growing.
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Scotts EZ Seed up close.
Essentially, Scotts EZ Seed is really just three every day products sort of mixed into one container: grass seed, fertilizer and soil (or a soil-substitute in this case). It doesn’t really sound very revolutionary when you put it that way and, admittedly, Scotts doesn’t want you to think about what you’re really paying for. The stuff is pretty expensive. The big question is: is the money worth it? Is there more to Scotts EZ Seed than meets the eye?
What Kind of Grass Seed is Scotts EZ Seed?
Another concern some people have had about buying an “all-in-one” product to grow grass is not having the grass actually match the rest of the lawn. This is a valid concern and one which shouldn’t be taken lightly. The packaging of Scotts EZ Seed Turf Builder product contains a long list of items that are in the mixture, including mulch, fertilizer and some inert materials. Again, when you really look at a handful of Scotts EZ Seed you can see that there is relatively little grass seed compared to the amount of pellets.
But what types of grass seed are mixed into Scotts EZ Seed? Most of the seed appears to be from the states of Oregon and Washington and even Canada and they all have germination rates of over 85%. The percentages of seed types breaks down like this:
1.49% – Fenway Creeping Red Fescue
1.48% – Wendy Jean Creeping Red Fescue
1.46% – Silver Dollar Perennial Ryegrass
1.11% – Courtyard Kentucky Bluegrass
1.11% – Thermal Blue Kentucky Bluegrass
0.73% – Majesty II Perenial Ryegrass
That means that a little over 7% of what you’re buying in Scotts EZ Seed is actually grass seed and the rest is that absorbent soil substitute and a little bit of fertilizer.
Scotts EZ Seed Vs Soil and Grass Showdown… On A Brick!
Now it’s time to actually set up a controlled experiment and see how well Scotts EZ Seed really works. I decided to not only test the Scotts “grow grass on a brick” experiment, but I also poured a little down in a bare spot on my lawn, just to see if it really did make a difference or not.
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Day 1 – Soil and dirt on left, Scotts EZ Seed on right, still dry.
Just so you know, I’m in US Gardening Zone 6B (New Jersey) and the days here are regularly getting into the mid to upper 60 degrees, while the evenings still get into the 40s (but never freezing). I’m starting this experiment in Mid-April which is a little early for growing grass, but not unheard of.
I grabbed an old metal pan and placed two landscaping bricks in it. I set the experiment up on by backdoor stairs that are up off the ground. I wanted to minimize the chance of having any birds looking for a snack or having someone accidentally walk across my experiment. My back porch faces north east and gets a good half day of morning sunlight on most days. I plan to water my experiment each day unless there is significant rain that takes care of that for me.
On the left brick I poured my mix of generic brand fescue grass seed and soil. You can read about how I used this mixture of grass seed and soil to grow my grass quickly around other parts of my yard. For this I mixed about 1 part grass seed to six parts soil, though I wasn’t very scientific with it. I used soil from a 20 pound of “topsoil” that cost me all of 99 cents when I bought it. It would be difficult to peg an exact value on the materials, but I’d say I used about 5 cents worth of topsoil and about 25 cents worth of grass seed, bringing the cost for the planting on the left brick to about 30 cents.
On top of the right brick I poured a fair bit of Scotts EZ Seed Turf Builder product. The instructions claim you should spread it on about 1/8 inch thick, but in my experience the stuff is so light that a small breeze or harsh stream of water from a hose can thin it out pretty quickly. I put it on a little thick than recommended, knowing that it was going to thin out. I used about a 10th of the container, which means that I was probably looking at about $2.00 worth of Scotts EZ Seed.
I thoroughly wet both sides and immediately noticed that while my soil and dirt mixture just got a bit muddy the Scotts EZ Seed mixture actually turned really “puffy” and clearly expanded a good bit with moisture. Those little dry pellets swelled up like sponges, which was rather impressive to see. You can also tell when the Scotts EZ Seed is wet by color alone: it starts out a light brown when it is dry but turns a much darker brown when it has moisture in it.
The Scotts EZ Seed Results
I’ll keep the results here at the bottom of this post, so you’ll want to check back from time to time. I’ll try to post an update every five to seven days, though I’ll post more if the grass starts sprouting early.
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Day 1 – Soil and dirt on left, Scotts EZ Seed on right, now wet.
Scotts EZ Seed Test Day 1 – I’ve started the experiment with Scotts EZ Seed and my soil and dirt mixture on April 17th. Both were watered thoroughly. It’s in the mid-60′s today with a slight breeze. It’s been overcast with some limited periods of sun. It’s supposed to be sunny and cooler (lower 60′s) for the next couple days. This photo was taken just after watering. The EZ seed really puffed out and practically covered the entire brick as it sucked in the moisture and expanded. You can scroll back up the page to see the dry vs. the wet photos. There’s quite a difference with the EZ seed.
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Day 5 – No grass yet.
Scotts EZ Seed Test Day 5 – Okay, so I’m about five days into this experiment and so far neither the Scotts EZ Seed nor my own grass and soil mixture has show any signs of sprouting. The patch of ground where I poured some EZ Seed and my dirt and grass seed mixture also doesn’t show any signs of growth. I’ve been watering my bricks every day that it hasn’t rained and now I’m beginning to get a little concerned that maybe there’s too much water in the pan. I neglected to drill holes in it for drainage so the heavy rain from last night has left a fair bit of water in the pan. The bricks (really landscaping pavers) seem to be sucking up the water and keeping the grass seed and soil fairly moist. There was one day when my own soil mixture looked a little dried out, but the Scotts EZ Seed mixture remained damp, so Scott’s claim that their mixture needs less water may be correct. If it holds more moisture for a longer period of time (think of a sponge holding water more effectively than rock) then you may indeed need less water to get the Scotts EZ seed mixture to grow. It’s supposed to be warmer with a mix of sun and rain over the next few days here so I’m thinking that we should probably begin to see results in the day week or two. There’s a shadow across the Scotts EZ seed in the photo, but that moves across both bricks as the sun rises.
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Day 9 – Grass on both bricks!
Scotts EZ Seed Test Day 9 – Grass! After only 9 days (April 17 to April 26) of trying to grow grass on a brick with Scotts EZ seed we have success! Both plots were pretty barren looking this morning, but after a full day of steady rain I returned home this evening to find grass on both bricks. That being said, the brick with my cheap topsoil and cheap grass seed mixture is show much better results than the Scotts EZ seed at this point. The Scotts EZ seed has started to seed, but it’s so sporadic that it’s actually difficult to photograph. There are some sprouts along the edges. It could just be a difference in the types of seeds used on each brick, so I’m not too worried and I’ll keep the experiment going. I also want to see how full each grass grows and how healthy it looks. It’s been a little cool here (mid-sixties all week) and we’ve had a fair bit of rain. In the past nine days we’ve probably had about 6 days of overcast and cloudy skies mixed with rain. We’ve only had three sunny and somewhat warm days. You can see a close-up of the results below.
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Day 9 – First grass seen!
Cheap topsoil and grass seed on left vs. Scotts EZ Seed on right.
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Day 15 – Soil & Grass Mixture on Left, Scotts EZ Seed on Right
Scotts EZ Seed Test Day 15 – We’re at about the two week mark since I began trying to grow grass on a brick. The good news is that we definitely have grass growing, but the perplexing bit is that the Scotts EZ Seed is sprouting much slower than my cheap soil and grass seed mixture. The spot in my lawn where I spread Scotts EZ Seed does seem to be doing a little better, but it’s definitely not overtaking the yard yet. We’ve had some cool nights and days here, so I suspect that the Scotts grass seed is just meant for slightly warmer weather. It’s growing, but slowly.
Test results aside I have to admit that the Scotts EZ seed is easier to put down: you just open the container and sprinkle it out. For the soil and seed mixture you have to have a bucket or container to mix the soil and seed in before spreading it. Again, you may want to check out my quick grass growing instructions to see exactly how I planted the seed on the left brick in the photos.
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Day 18 – Soil & Grass Mixture on Left, Scotts EZ Seed on Right
Scotts EZ Seed Test Day 18 – After just a few days of warmer weather with a mix of sun and rain, the Scotts EZ Seed has really taken off and is now just about as high as my own grass seed and soil mixture. The Scotts took a little longer to actually germinate, but it is a pretty fast growing grass, all things considered. The Scotts is definitely not as “thick” as my own mixture, but that’s actually an interesting drawback to the Scotts: you can’t control how much seed you really want to spread out. With my own mixture I can put more or less grass seed into the soil and change my ratio as I see fit (I sort of over did it with this experiment) but with the EZ Seed your ratio is pre-set by Scotts so you just “get what you get and don’t get upset” when it doesn’t come in as thick as you want it.
The one thing that this experiment shows is that no matter what sort of grass seed or starter mix you use, you really do need to give it lots of water. A brick sitting in a pan is actually a pretty good way to grow grass because the brick acts as a sort of sponge and will hold onto moisture and dampness that can then be used by the grass seed mixtures sitting on top of them.
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Day 22 – Soil & Grass Mixture on Left, Scotts EZ Seed on Right
No water for four days.
Scotts EZ Seed Test Day 22 – So far my grass and soil mixture has grown grass faster than the Scotts EZ Seed mixture when they are both planted on concrete or cement or a brick. But both mixtures were also getting regular water, so the conditions were pretty optimal for seed to grow. Over the past four days I purposely did NOT water the two bricks. The grass picked up a little moisture from morning dew, but we’ve had no rain so both mixtures were allowed to “dry out” a bit.
In the photo you can plainly see that my cheap grass and seed mixture did not fair nearly as well with this little bit of dry weather. The soil beneath it feels rather dry and crusty, while the Scotts EZ seed is remarkably soft and still a bit damp, even four days later. The clear winner is the Scotts EZ seed in this case. If you’re going to be planting grass seed you’ll definitely need to water it every day, but if you forget a day or two then it would appear that the Scotts EZ seed might be a good deal more forgiving than plain old grass seed in dirt.
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Day 33 and Conclusions- Yes, it’s easy to grow grass on a brick with Scotts EZ Seed Turf Builder
Conclusion
I’m ending the Scotts EZ Seed Review about a month after it began. For the last 10 days I’ve watered the bricks with the grass seed a little bit, but I’ve mostly let nature take its course. Both have done well, but the Scotts EZ Seed did stay seem to hold up to dryer conditions much better than the cheap soil and grass seed mix. It’s pretty clear that both Scotts EZ Seed as well as my simple mixture of grass seed and top soil will both easily allow you to “grow grass on a brick” with relative ease as long as there is plenty of water. I sort of abandoned running this experiment on my actual yard because once both spots started to grow grass it was impossible to really tell where one had ended and another one began. Maybe I’ll test that again sometime later in the summer. Overall conclusions:
Pros of Scotts EZ Seed Turf Builder
- Easy to use – Just read the directions, spread and water.
- Grows thick grass relatively quickly – You’ll have a young patch of lawn in about 21 days
- Really does save water – The soil mixture stayed damp much longer after a rain (days) than the simple topsoil grass sample
- Seems to be hardy and decent grass – A few days without water did not harm it all and it has stayed more green and thick than my cheaper mix after I let things go on their own for a bit. I suspect the fertilize also helped the Scotts grass stay healthier and grow longer.
Cons of Scotts EZ Seed Turf Builder
- Expensive – If you’re trying to grow your lawn for as cheaply as possible, this may not be for you. Really, $15 to $20 seems a bit for a containter of seed, fertilizer and absorbent material that weighs less than 4 pounds. That will cover just 80 square feet. A 3 or 5 pound bag of Scotts Turfbuilder will cover hundreds of square feet and cost about the same price. Throw in a small bag of fertilizer and scrape the soil and you have a much cheaper solution (that admittedly requires more work). By the way, a 10-Pound Bag of Scotts EZ SeedImage may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.works out to be a much better deal.
- Inconvenient Spout – I know the spout on the jug was supposed to make things easier, but I had to shake and shimmy and rock it to get it out evenly. Then again, I was aiming for a small brick, so a larger area might have been better.
- Lightweight – minor quibble that I keep mentioning, but if you put down Scotts EZ Seed Turf Builder make sure you water it right away to sort of weight it down. And, remember, this experiment took place on a brick that sat a foot off the ground on my back stairs. So it wasn’t down at ground level where there were a lot more wind breaks.
We received a comment from a gentleman who claims to be from Scotts. It’s Comment #9 below and his name is Kip. He pointed out two criticisms of this growing grass on a brick experiment, and they are both valid concerns.
First, on my topsoil and grass seed mix I have an awful lot of seed. Yes, yes I do. Even I don’t normally mix it that much when I spread things around my yard. I was used to mixing a full wheel barrow full of topsoil and seed and for this experiment I just mixed a handful of seed with topsoil in a cup. I overdid it a bit.
Second, Kip points out that the mound of Scotts EZ Seed is much higher than the recommended 1/8 inch. I agree, but again, I had those wind issues. I had actually started this experiment a week earlier with the proper amount, but two storms blew through my area during that week and essentially washed or blew off about half of the EZ Seed mix. So for this experiment (I completely started over) I decided to pile it a bit high so that it was a little more wind-proof. Still, even piled high I think the Scotts Turf Builder product did pretty well.
Some of the comments have expressed concerns about Scotts EZ Seed growing at all, but I figure it this way: if it can grow grass on a brick with just a daily watering then there isn’t really any reason for it not to at least germinate and start growing almost anywhere. Warmer weather will help and water is still a necessity. Scotts does have some guarantees on its products if you have a bad experience.
Overall, would I use Scotts EZ Seed Turf Builder product on my lawn? Yes, I probably would. I have a few patches of lawn right now that are shadier than others (but not excessively so) where I might end up using the rest of the Scotts EZ Seed to see if I can get them going. I think I would probably recommend trying a cheaper method first, especially if you already have invested in some grass seed, but I would definitely consider buying the 10-Pound Bag of Scotts EZ Seed Turf BuilderImage may be NSFW.
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Thanks for reading!
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Almost two months without rain or water will kill of just about any type of grass.
Epilogue
I just wanted to show you what happens when you don’t water your grass-growing on a brick experiment. We haven’t received any more than about 10 minutes of solid rain over the past two months and I’ve purposely let the bricks go “wild” on their own. They did well for a while, but once we had a prolonged period without rain, both patches of grass turned brown fairly quickly: much quicker than the rest of my lawn, by the way. The lesson you can take from this? Don’t plant grass on concrete or bricks. Regular soil will hold on to moisture longer.