Which grass should I plant on my lawn? Part 2: Northern U.S., transition zone, Southern U.S./Mexico.
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- Опубліковано 14 жов 2024
- This video explains which grasses you should consider using for lawns in the different areas of the United States. Grasses include Kentucky bluegrass, fineleaf fescues, perennial ryegrass, tall fescue, bermudagrass, zoysiagrass, buffalograss, centipedegrass, St. Augustinegrass, carpetgrass, bahiagrass, kikuyugrass.
Link to part 1: • Which grass should I p...
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Finally more information on the over looked transition zone!
glad it was helpful!
Transition Zone home owner here. Thanks.
you're very welcome. Glad the content was helpful!
Glad you put that unirrigated photo of the KBG and TTTF grass types up. For me that alone makes my decision.
TTTFs are tanks. Depending on where you live, it's pretty hard to go wrong with a good one.
I live in the city of Warren, Michigan and if I spend $100 on water, the city will charge me an additional $100 for sewage charge. Kentucky Blue grass look nice and they are shallow roots and requires a lot of water in the summer. I ended up doing a renovation and put in turf type tall fescue and no regret!
That's a great story, Kevin. I wish I would've known it before making my tall fescue video, I would've included it!
Oh man, thank you. I live in North Texas, basically Texhoma. This video just answered every question I've had for what I need to overseed this fall. I'm gonna try Turf Type Tall Fescue and see how she does.
glad it was helpful. Tall fescue isn't a fix-all but with a little love in your very dry times, it should be ok.
This was an awesome video, Dr. Gregg! Thank you for this!
Thanks bro!
@@GrassDoctor i live in NJ cliffside park. tranisiton zone based on your videos. so i started with kentucky blue before winter start then when summer came overseed with bermudagrass... it may work or not...
@@jaandel1 Hi Jaime, thanks for the comment. I agree with you, 1, your are in the transition zone and 2, bermuda may or may not work. They are putting in some bermuda in Central Park though so my guess is most of your winters wouldnt be cold enough to kill the bermuda out. Keep me posted though--I'll be super curious to know how it does!
1:12- this is exactly why you don't buy Scott's or Pennington (or Walmart's grass seed for that matter). Bought a "Northeast Mix" last year, and the most prominent grass was of the wide bladed variety, which had light green shading to it. I also had some spots that were a softer/lusher grass that was of the similar color. It creates more work for you to fix even beyond having the bare spots there in the first place! Not my property anymore though..
Excellent comment Matt. There are a lot of bad seed mixes out there. I am currently in the process of making a video about how to read a seed tag and things you need to look out for. Sorry your experience wasn't great last year.
I probably bought your shit lawn thanks
Dr. Munshaw!!! Glad to see another video! My Mountain View Seed Triple Duty is “rocking & rolling” here in the heartland of the transition zone. #UseMountainViewSeeds
Awesome, great to hear, Kendal!
@@GrassDoctor wish I could send you pictures?
@@GrassDoctor is their anything that can be done to kill out Poa Annual?
@@okielawnguy DM me on instagram or my regular twitter account (I'm not monitoring the other very much)
@@okielawnguy yes, but not really in the first year. it'll all die this summer and your goal should be getting the lawn as thick as possible over the summer and into the fall so it's so thick that the Poa annua will have too much competition to germinate and come on next winter.
I have dark green grass in Dallas Texas and it’s tall fescue grass seeds.
Hi Angel, it's certainly possible. Check out my tall fescue video and the map I have for it shows that it can work in north TX. I'm glad it's working for you!
I live in Nashville, I have tall fescue. The previous owners of my home filled in bare spots with the other fescue you mentioned. It is light green and grows crazy fast. I couldn't figure it out until this video. Any advice on how to convert the sections over to the regular fescue? Can i overseed? Can i mix with tall fescue and Kentucky blue? Love the content.
Thanks Nick. Your best best is to spot treat the tall fescue clumps you don't want and then come in in Sept and seed in the TF you want (obviously a good turf type). As hot as you get in Nashville, I would probably just go straight TF and leave the KBG out of it. KBG doesn't like the hot summers.
@@GrassDoctor Thank you. I’m still a rookie in the grass game. What does spot treat mean? So wait to seed in September?
@@nickheezy spot treat means to spray something like glyphosate only on the plant you want to kill. Depending on how thick your lawn is, you may kill a little desirable grass as well but if you spray with low pressure, it usually isn't too bad. You can also dig up individual plants (depending on how many of them there are).
In Nashville, your best time to seed is Sept into early Oct. Spring will get pretty hot pretty quick for any cool-season grass (i.e. tall fescue) seedlings. If you were planting bermuda or zoysia, you'd want them planted in the summer. Let me know if you have any other questions!
Perfect. Looking for info on the best options in East Tennessee.
You have a whole lot of options in east TN--none of them are spectacular though. Certainly tall fescue for a lawn is what I'd be looking at though.
@@GrassDoctor that’s what I’ve been moving toward too. Thank you!
@@andrewdouglas4974 glad I could help!
Very informative. Thank you!
Thanks very much!
Thank you for the video, it was extremely helpful as I am new to the lawn care and have been investigating on what type of grass seed, I should use. I live in east Michigan (Rochester hills) and I was stuck between bluegrass and Tall fescue. After watching your video, it seems like turf tall fescue would be right choice. Do you agree? Also, do you have any recommendation on brand?
Good stuff!!!
I am located in Edwardsville, IL just outside of St. Louis. Most of my lawn is a beautiful think grass and where the previous owner had trees removed, the lawn was seeded with I think centipede or carpet grass from what I can tell how looks from your video. How can I get rid of it and make it look like rest of the lawn? Thank you.
I had no idea there was Kikuyu grass in the US. Gonna check that right now. I'm in South Florida.
I'm not sure I've ever heard of any in FL, but it's for sure in CA.
St augustIne is a nice name for crab grass
i live in southern california, whats the recommendation? going for a more darker green.
i was leaning towards KBG for my home in Kansas City because i've been frustrated with the wide blade fescue but i think i'm sold in staying with the TF and just making sure i find a good mix somewhere that won't have the wide blade TF mixed in. my yard is not irrigated (unless i break out the sprinkler) so that photo on 1:06 has me sold for TF..
I had to go back and look at what was at 1:06. That was my neighborhood in Lexington, KY, which is slightly warmer than KC, but not by much. I now live a couple hours east of you and still have a primarily TF home lawn. There was a little KBG but I'm slowly converting most of the property to TF because it takes the summer's so much better. Plus, if you go with a new and highly rated TF, you'll have leaf texture that isn't much different than KBG!
@@GrassDoctor I bought a bag of it and will oversees my front and about half of my back yard. Hoping to keep that up and slowly convert it all.
I’m in Northern California where summer can get to 110 with full summer sun for 14 hours a day and winter is generally in the 40s but get the occasional frost and snow. What grass or mixtures do you recommend. I also want something that stays green in the winter as well.
Sorry for the delay--been a hectic summer. You live in a tough climate so some grasses to consider are tall fescue, bermudagrass (or these 2 together), or native California bentgrass. This is a grass I'm not familiar with but it sounds like it suits your climate pretty well. All 3 of these grasses are drought tolerant but the bermuda goes brown in the winter so if you didn't plant tall fescue into it, your color wouldnt be where you'd want it.
Great video with lots of detail. I believe I have the KBG 31 in my lawn. It is exactly as you describe, in that it looks like a weed, more than a grass. Is there any way to get rid of KBG 31 without completely reseeding the lawn from scratch?
Hi Doug, I think you're thinking of KY (Kentucky) 31 tall fescue which is pretty big and ugly compared to the new turf type tall fescues. That said, its really hard to remove a turfgrass (weed) from a turfgrass so the best way to get it done is to spot treat the KY 31 with a non-selective herbicide and then a week or so later seed those areas with what you actually want on the lawn. I had to do this exact thing on my Kentucky bluegrass/tall fescue lawn in KY. Glad the content is useful for you!
KY 31 is really ugly, not only it grow faster but it blades are very wide.
@@Scott-xq2dm you are 100% correct. You don't want anything to do with it!
Is Scott’s heat tolerant blue mix a type 31?
What about southern part of USA like NC
Is the Texas hybrid bluegrass (SPF30) in the transition zone any good? I think it’s newer. I currently have TTTF, but I would like to add another variety that spreads out more. Regular KY bluegrass doesn’t do good at all in the summer here. Thanks for your help!
Hey GuitarMan 37, you could try a spreading type TTTF like Regenerate or Titanium 2LS that would fill in any voids more quickly than a non-spreading TF. SPF-30 does well in mixes with TF but has summer patch problems on it's own. Some of the newer KBG blends also have shown to have better heat tolerance. Blends such as 365ss, HD-Sports 2.0, and HGT all do pretty well in higher temps (certainly much better than older blues).
Several years ago my KBG yard developed small patches of a very shallow rooted viney grass with numerous small blades on each vine. I had some success pulling it out when it first appeared but this summer it grew rampant and now is dominating large areas completely wiping out the KBG. I'm sure I will have to kill large areas now to rid the yard of this invasive mess but can you suggest anything that may allow the KBG to survive?
good questions. What part of the country do you live in? Do you fertilize, water, etc? The weedy grass may be easy to control, or not, depending on what it is. Shoot me some pics to ukturfgrass@gmail.com and I'll see if I can help you out.
@@GrassDoctor Thanks Doc. I'll shoot and send you pics asap. I live in sw Ohio and do apply pre-emergent, fertilizer, weed control, and spot spray for weeds and water as needed.
This was an outstanding video! Extremely well presented with a very efficient use of time. I am now a proud subscriber!
I live in Southern New York State which falls in the Cool Winter Zone. Do you have a particular ratio of seed types you could suggest for this zone? Or as a starting point for my fellow “Cool Zoners” do you have a particular brand of seed, or a pre-mixed product you could suggest? Many thanks in advance.
thanks very much! in your area it is common to see mixes of species that include fine fescues (like creeping red), KY bluegrasses, sometimes tall fescues, and often a large percentage of perennial ryegrass. Some PR is ok, but you don't want to see more than 30%. All of the other grasses are just fine for your location though. I work for a grass seed company so I don't want to blatantly push one of our mixes at you, but I will say that there are some good grasses out there from several companies. Check out how the grasses you are interested in did in NTEP trials (www.ntep.org) to give you a better feel for whether what you're looking at is any good or not.
@@GrassDoctor
Am a bit of crazy basterd so am trying Zoysia in my lawn In my Cental Indiana lawn
@@subninja8069 there is nothing wrong with thinking outside the box. there's a good bit of zoysia sold in southern IN and I know the good folks at Purdue have grown it successfully in W. Lafayette, so as long as you choose a cold tolerant variety, you should be in decent shape!
Hello Dr. Gregg. I have a 2nd home being built in Southern Albany New York. The area I need grass is about 3 acres and there will be a raised leach field for septic system on it. I will not be able to cut regularly nor will it have water source other than rain fall. Could you recommend a grass seed or mix I can use. I want something low maintenance! Thank you. Jerry
Hey Jerry, great question. If you're going to keep it on the lower maintenance side and not irrigate, some fineleaf fescues need to be included. I would look for a mix that has 65% or so fine fescues (using several different kinds is a good idea--i.e. chewings, creeping red, etc), 10-20% perennial rye and 15-25% Ky bluegrass. It won't be zero maintenance, but fine fescues grow relatively slow but can also look good if kept unmowed. If you have much shade in the area, I would bump the percent fine fescue up even higher. Let me know what you end up using!
@@GrassDoctor Hey Dr. Thanks for the quick response. Just one more question. My field is no shade all sun. With the mix you provided above would using a TTTF grass be helpful since some of the grasses you listed above may not do well in full sun and little water? Thank you again. Jerry
@@jerrysatu I'm a huge fan of tall fescue. My only question for your area is how cold your winters are. Most of the new TTTFs have much improved cold tolerance and are being recommended by northern universities, but that would be my only hesitation. If you were to use a new one, I would replace the PR with the TF. Another great question! I'm not sure what's out there that is high in TF, FF, and KBG, but I know there are mixes with all 3 and some PR in them as well. Just do your homework on what is in the bag! My next video will drop this weekend with warnings of what is in bags of seed but the next one will be how to choose a variety for your area.
Call me crazy, but for 3 sunny acres on a vacation home I would want mostly Kentucky Bluegrass and Dutch White clover for a self-sufficient nitrogen cycle and less mowing during peak use. i.e., summer. I live in the country and see city people come to their summer places and spend most of their weekend's mowing.
@@morrismonet3554 KBG certainly is a good option for NY state. My only concern with going 100% KBG (wh. clover is a whole other thing--it does indeed fix N to improve the soil but is not a tough plant with drought, traffic, or cold--I like clover in a lawn unless there are kids playing) is the lack of drought tolerance. Because TF has such deeper roots, it stays green and growing whereas KBG goes into drought dormancy. I have no problem with a brown lawn during the summer, but the issue with it is there is no competition so if weed pressure is high, other grasses such as crabgrass can really take off in a situation like this. This obviously could be nipped in the bud with a pre-emerge herbicide app, but TF is just a tougher grass all around and a grass that doesn't require as many inputs (easier on the environment) so you'll often hear me sing it's praises. If someone heard my argument though and said 'you know what--I hear what you're saying but I want to go with KBG on my 3 acres in NY' I would tell them to go for it and would be happy to help with any issues they ran into!
I’m curious about the height I should mow my Kentucky blue grass in South Central Pennsylvania?
Hi Joyce, check out my mowing video: ua-cam.com/video/5_nhpchMyfs/v-deo.html and see if it helps at all. I'm a keep it taller and healthy kind of guy, but some people like to mow their lawn down tight.
Can Kentucky blue grass be mixed with Bermuda in western Pennsylvania.
Hey MrPoncho, great question. It would depend on how cold your winters get. Bermuda would be your limiting factor because it doesn't have great cold tolerance. I know there are folks in Chicago (eg. Chicago Bears) that have put in bermudagrass, but they likely have covers etc to help keep the bermuda alive during the winter. I'm not going to say it won't work for you, I would just be hesitant to put in a bunch of work on something that might not make it.
@@GrassDoctor thank you for the quick response
Kentucky Bluegrass good in Southern Michigan ??
absolutely! Ky bluegrass is a great choice for you. Tall fescue is another option for southern MI and has better drought and heat tolerance. Either one would be fine. Lots of time you can find both of them together in the same mix. The key is to make sure you buy quality seed of whichever species you end up choosing.
@@GrassDoctor ok. Thk U soo much !!
@@markschmaus5580 you're very welcome!
@@GrassDoctor I am trying JG black beauty ultra in Warren, MI and hopefully my Kentucky Blue grass neighbors do not hate me! I need something with low maintenance and less water requirements.
Buffalo grass is st augustine grass....
in the United States, buffalograss is Buchloe dactyloides and is a native species while St. Augustinegrass is Stenotaphrum secundatum (St. Augustinegrass is called buffalograss in Australia). This is one of the reasons why scientists use Latin names, as the common names can change in different areas but the Latin name is always the same. Another example of this is in Europe, Poa pratensis is called meadowgrass while in the United States/Canada it's called Kentucky bluegrass.
@@GrassDoctor makes sense im in Aus
@@knav6680 cool. I will be heading there for the first time in June--I'm looking forward to it!
Buffalo grass in Montana and Dakota? Is it possible to grow buffalo grass in northern Illinois.
I doubt it would work. I live in MO and we can't grow it here--it's too wet. I don't see it until I drive well into KS where they don't get as much rain as we do. I've also tried to grow it in MS and VA and it would just slowly go away because of too much rain. Great question though.