TL;DR
Dormant seeding is the sowing of cool-season grass seed in late fall or early winter, after soil has dropped below about 50°F, so the seed lies inert through winter and germinates at the first sustained warmth of spring. Freeze-thaw cycles work the seed into the soil naturally, and germination beats anything spring-sown by weeks, ahead of crabgrass competition.
What it means
Dormant seeding is the sowing of cool-season grass seed in late fall or early winter, after soil has dropped below about 50°F, so the seed lies inert through winter and germinates at the first sustained warmth of spring. Freeze-thaw cycles work the seed into the soil naturally, and germination beats anything spring-sown by weeks, ahead of crabgrass competition. The gamble is a midwinter warm spell that sprouts seed only to kill the seedlings, which is why the technique suits bare-soil repairs and northern climates better than mild, erratic ones.
Where it sits in the glossary
Dormant seeding is part of the Trade jargon group inside the ProFix Directory glossary. Browse every term in this category from the glossary index.
Why Ohio homeowners should know it
This is a term Ohio homeowners encounter when reading contractor quotes, hiring paperwork, or inspection reports. Understanding it well enough to ask one good follow-up question is usually all the protection a homeowner needs.
ProFix Directory keeps definitions short on the index page and saves the longer context — Ohio-specific rules, where the term comes from, and which ProFix tools touch it — for these per-term pages so the term is easy to cite and easy to share.
ProFix tools that touch this term
See also
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