Buffalo Grass Update

[BeerBasket]

I wrote my opinion of Buffalo Grass in April 2004. I have not changed my mine. It is a great grass. I do not have an irrigation system and with last summer's drought I did not water. The grass went dormaint but now with the recent rain the gras has come back with no losses of any of the turf. While my neighbors have water bills ranging in the $300-$700 range during the summer, mine is less then $100 and most of tyhat is to keep the pool full. Weeds are not a problem this year where as most of my neihbors have them. I apply Corn Gluten Meal in March and has worked great.

[Tony M]

Beerbasket-
Please send some pictures to Doreen@dirtdoctor.com. She can post them to the home page and we can all see why you're such a proud papa.
Tony M

[Dchall_San_Antonio]

I am always interested in success stories to figure out how they came about. I had never seen a successful installation of buff until last summer in Lubbock. There I saw several lawns with their locally developed version called Turffalo. I saw it growing tall at 4 inches, shorter at 2 inches, and still shorter at 1/2 inch. All looked very good and were 99.99% weed free. One thing I did notice was the absolute necessity of FULL sunlight. These lawns all had 15-foot tall trees, and on the north side of the trees, there was weak to zero grass in spots. I took some pictures of the grass which required me to lay down on it. For about 2 hours following the photo session I could not stop scratching my arms - I am apparently highly allergic to buff.

Can you give us more detail about your turf and your situation? I have been very negative about buff (prior to last summer) but now that I've seen the light, I want to put out as many good words as I can. I still do believe that it is easy to do buff the wrong way, but I don't know the right way. So any help y'all can provide would be much appreciated!

[BeerBasket]

We planted our "609" Buffalo Grass by sod in November of 2002. The grass is in total sun light. We do not have a sprinkler system which was one reason we wanted this grass due to its low maintenance. I cut 4 times a year, could be less depending how tall you like the grass to reach.
Last summer during our drought, I did not water. Grass went dormaint late summer but has reurned this year, especially with all our recent rain. I apply Corn Gluten Meal in March for weed controll and fertilization. The grass now is green as compared to my neighbor's which is still brown. Can provide photos if interested or answer any questions. Two other neighbors have installed Buffalo Grass based on my success and are happy.

[Dchall_San_Antonio]

Okay! I'm very impressed!! Thanks for writing.