What Grass Seed is Ideal for Top Turf?cwsportsturf.com /blog/what-grass-seed-is-ideal-for-top-turf/

Choosing the right grass seed for your top turf can be extremely challenging. Whether you are taskedwith deciding on the seed for your home lawns, athletic fields or even renovating your already existingturf in a bid to add newer and improved varieties to your lawn, you will want to do your homework andfind the best new varieties of grass seed available. While high quality seeds will often cost you more, itis essential that you buy the best available quality. Some of the existing seed grass species include:

1.Perennial Ryegrass

This dark green colored grass with good mowing characteristics and medium fine texture has a bunch-type non-spreading growth habit. It often germinates and establishes quite expediently. This grassseed is best grown in a mixture with other species. It is important to note that the best quality perennialryegrass is essentially endophyte enhanced; this is relatively more resistant to lawn damaging insects,such as chinch bugs.

2.Kentucky Bluegrass

Kentucky bluegrass is a popularly adapted species that is applicable in numerous situations. This darkgreen-colored grass with a medium fine texture is capable of spreading and recovering, because itgrows by rhizomes that essentially allow it to form a dense cover. This makes it an ideal grass seed foryour golf course, home lawn or athletic field. You should ensure that the grass receives medium to highmaintenance in order to achieve the best quality turf.

3.Hybrid Bluegrass

This exhibits the same great qualities of Kentucky bluegrass. It is however more drought and shadetolerant. Its availability is quite limited, rendering it more expensive.

4.Turf Type Tall Fescue

This grass seed is extremely drought resistant, owing to its deep root system. It however doesn’ttolerate as much mowing height as Kentucky bluegrass; the recommended mowing height is 2-3inches. This grass species requires slightly less fertilizer and water in producing high quality turfstands.

5.Fine Fescues

Both Chewing and Hard fescue grass seed species have a bunch-type growth habit, and a fine leaftexture. These species are particularly well adapted for dry and shady conditions, as well as lowmaintenance situations. The most commonly used fine fescue species is the Creeping red fescue,which has slow spreading rhizomes. This grass seed is primarily employed in mixes with such otherspecies as perennial ryegrass and Kentucky bluegrass.

In Deciding Which Grass Will Work Best For The Different Areas Of Your Lawn,Consider The Following:

Shade tolerance: Grasses are essentially sun loving plants that require a minimum of 4 hours ofdirect sunlight every day. In the event that your light is marginal, you will want to go for fescues,which are relatively shade tolerant than the regular ryegrass or bluegrass.

Drought tolerance: If your soil type is not capable of retaining sufficient water or you have nointentions of watering your grass during the summer, you will want to go for the HybridBluegrasses or the Turf type tall fescues.

Water tolerance: This is an important consideration as some grass types like the Fine fescuesdo not stand up well to traffic. You will therefore want to select any of the other species for thelawn areas that take considerable wear and tear.

Establishment: The ability to germinate quickly and protect the soil is also an importantconsideration especially for slopes that are vulnerable to erosion. Perennial ryegrass is the bestcandidate for this purpose, Kentucky bluegrass is the slowest.

Whichever species you settle on, it is essential that you select quality named varieties with superiorgenetics, while having improved insect and disease resistance and remarkable drought tolerance.

Keith Kitchen

Owner at Commonwealth Sports Turf ServicesGrowing up on a working farm that feeds your family gave Keith an appreciation for the importance ofplanning for growth. It was corn and peanuts then, now it sports turf. After graduating from VirginiaTech with a Bachelors of Science in Agricultural Economics and spending 5 years with SouthernStates, Keith partnered into a new business venture overseeing natural turf maintenance for LuxuryLawns, a startup maintenance company. Continued growth over 20 years has placed Luxury Lawns, acompany Keith now owns, in the top small businesses in the Midlothian area specializing in residentialturf management, landscape design and installation, and hardscape applications. After success in theresidential turf market, Keith launched Commonwealth Sports Turf and now manages the day to dayoperations of the business.