The cheapest seed may not always be the cheapest seed!   Do you know how much seed you are really planting?

Knowing how to compute pure live seed can help you grow better lawns and make better choices about the seeds you use.

If you compare a rye grass seed and a Bermuda, seed you will notice a big difference in size.  If you compare a rye grass seed to a Kentucky bluegrass seed or a fescue you will see that the ryegrass is noticeably larger.  

When you see different seeding rates per 1000 square feet one of the objectives is to keep the number of plants in a given area similar.   Even though a small seed may be seeded at a few pounds or less per thousand and a larger seed may be seeded at 5 to 7 pounds per 1000 square feet or more, the goal is usually to have about 1500 plants per square foot.

Take a look at the label on a bag of seed.  You will find a lot of information such as the type of seed, the supplier, test date and  where the seed came from.  

More importantly for what we want to talk about you will see seed purity, and germination percent.   To compute pure live seed multiply the "germination percent" X "purity" and divide that by "100" to get PURE LIVE SEED.   

  96% germination x 75% purity   =  72% PLS
                        100
 Then divide the "Cost per pound" by "Pure Live Seed" and you will have the cost per pound of the Pure Live Seed.

2.50 per pound  =      $ 3.47 per Pound of PLS
     72%

You may find the seed you thought were the cheapest are not.  You might find your seeding rate is far less than you thought.  Calculating Pure Live Seed can help you save money and do the best jobs possible.