Turfalo, Shadow turf propagation

green husker · Joined: 23 Mar 2003 Posts: 24 Location: Arlington,TEXAS

I live in N. Arlington, (TREES, thankfully!) and am contemplating an experiment with the two above-mentioned grasses. We have morning sun in the front yard, (about 50%) and good shade in the back.

Have read the online installation/care instructions on the Turfalo website, and am wondering if it's possible to introduce these grasses into existing St. Augustine, without tearing out all the exisiting sod? I understand the turfalo would most likely propogate faster if it had no competition, but pulling up and disposing of the existing lawn would not be an option. (I don't have the muscle for removal, nor the space to compost it.) I also do not wish to run the risk of damaging other plant roots in the sod removal process.

The existing lawn is satisfactory, but getting thin in spots where there is heavy shade; the front edge, along the curb, gets quite a bit of foot traffic from kids during the school year. Would also like to find a grass which requires less water... I believe water, like electricity and gasoline, is only going to get more expensive in the near future.

Any experience or advice out there?

Green Husker

Dirt Doctor · Joined: 08 Mar 2003 Posts: 549 Location: Dallas,Tx

Not sure I know what shadow turf is and all buffalo grass needs mostly full sun.

green husker · Joined: 23 Mar 2003 Posts: 24 Location: Arlington,TEXAS

A recent Redenta's Nursery email newsletter had a link to the Turffalo website:

http://www.turffalo.com/whychoose.asp

(I spelled the name incorrectly in my original post.)

It's advertised as an aggressive fill-in, so I'm wondering if I might introduce it to our St. Augustine lawn, (which looks pretty darned good, if I may say so myself!) but am keenly interested in a turf which requires less water.

Notezbngreen · Joined: 18 Apr 2006 Posts: 3 Location: Coppell,TEXAS

I am looking at the same thing right now. Amerishade is a St. Augustine designed for limited sun also. Surprisingly, I am finding very little knowledge on the web forums regarding either type of grass designed for shade. Consequently, I'm going to the companies directly, seeing if the have any local lawns that can be inspected, etc. The one issue with the Turfalo that I am not crazy about is that is only comes in plugs - seems like a lot of work for a lawn 2 months from being filled in.

Dchall_San_Antonio · Joined: 18 Mar 2003 Posts: 2002 Location: San Antonio,TEXAS

Turffalo absolutely needs a minimum of 8 hours a day of sunlight. I think it would prefer 25 hours a day. I've seen it in two installations in Lubbock, both with 15 foot high trees in the yard. Both of the yards were bare on the north side of the trees. One of the yards is at the entrance to the Greek area behind Tech. As you drive in, it is the first frat house on the left. The other yard is a couple miles away. Both yards are impressive. There is a garden shop that advertises heavily on the AM talk radio up there. Visit them to see the plugs and ask them for the address of the other installation. It's near that nursery. I believe that installation belongs to one of the Turffalo employees (don't know why I'm thinking this). That lawn is mowed at about 1/2 inch high and looks great (except for the shady areas).

Most buffalo grasses are not very agressive. Turffalo might be different. The installations and plugs I saw were extremely dense, in fact, surprisingly dense.

If you are allergic to some grasses, you should check before you buy. I could never live on Turffalo.

Another alternative for shade is dwarf monkey grass. I have some in my St Augustine and I can't get rid of it (without digging - ugh).

Notezbngreen · Joined: 18 Apr 2006 Posts: 3 Location: Coppell,TEXAS

The Turfalo guys have a shade variation called Shade Turf - it supposedly requires minimum sunlight. I can't get them to return my email - don't know if it is legit or not.

Bluestem · Joined: 08 Mar 2003 Posts: 169 Location: N. Texas

Check out there web site. The shade tolerant grass is a zoysia variety.

cin18868 · Joined: 09 Apr 2006 Posts: 1 Location: Wichita Falls,TEXAS

Hello from Wichita Falls. Our water bills have been raised 80% and aren't finished yet. We are on the extreme north end for St. Augustine, so our droughts, 103+ days, and cold winters are to much. The yards that are surviving have sprinkler systems. You can only use a licensed installer, so if I was going to stay here, I'd put one in. I need the $2500+ for the grass. We have a lot of shade with very large oak and pecan trees and we have open hot areas also. The St. Augustine did well while the winters were wet. We didn't water thru the winter. I've been looking at Turffalo's two grass varieties: Tech Turf and Shadow Turf. If these grasses can't be used, I'm letting it go back to nature with some xeriscaping (not zeroscaping). The previous owners struggle with these same issues resulted in gravel walkways, vines, timber lined flowerbeds and God Help Us acres of monkey or nut grass (I guess that's what it is). We have dug it out by the truck loads and of course it keeps coming back. I've thought about letting it take over the yard. It stays green and I never have to water it!!

So, your thoughts or experience on Turffalo's (company name) grasses.

LGK · Joined: 01 Mar 2006 Posts: 2 Location: Trophy Club,TEXAS

has anyone tried plugginng in an existing lawn? Does it crowd out the other grasses?

gtmillion · Joined: 18 Sep 2005 Posts: 6 Location: Mesquite,TEXAS

I bought two flats of the turf from Redentas to do some fill but while digging I realized it would be alot of work by hand, so I rented a sod cutter and took out all my St. Augustine, which looked good except some dead areas. From doing research, I think Turfallo would have a harder time to establish if put in with the Augustine because your supposed to water it frequently the first week and less there after. Then once established if you dont water the St. Augustine would become weaker allowing the Turfallo to fill in. After I tore up the yard I needed more flats and had to go to another nursery to get them. They had let theirs grow much longer. I thought this would be better, but I notice they look almost dead while the shorter sprigs I got from Redentas are still green. Anyways, my yard is a sight for sore eyes being only a week into the planting. I'm thinking about taking some pictures as it progresses. I did the recommended 12" spacing on the shorter ones and did more spacing on the longer springs thinking they would fill in faster.

stuart · Joined: 01 Apr 2004 Posts: 58 Location: Bartonville,TX

gtmillion wrote: Anyways, my yard is a sight for sore eyes being only a week into the planting. I'm thinking about taking some pictures as it progresses.

How does the Turfalo look? The description online at the Turfalo website claims that plugs spaced at 12" will fill in after 30-40 days. Have you found this to be the case?

I need to replace most of my yard in order to get it ready to sell and am quite interested in this.

I'd love to see those pictures too if you have them!

organic_dave · Joined: 06 Jan 2006 Posts: 1 Location: St. Paul,TEXAS

I planted turffalo about 10-12 weeks ago at 18" spacing in a new yard (no grass). However, I had ordered the plugs just before we went into level 3 water restrictions (I could only water it once per week by the time we plugged it). Also, in the days after we planted the plugs, temperatures were over 100. So it had a rought start, and half of the plugs went brown. The other plugs (which looked great when I unpacked them) shriveled and had just a little bit of green.

Eventually, some of it started taking root and greened up. There is a section near a sprinkler head that has mostly filled in. I'd guess 25% died and the rest hasn't spread more than a few inches. But the plugs that survived early on did stay green throughout the dry summer. They just couldn't propagate well because the runners couldn't find moist soil to root in.

The last few days have been relatively cool, and we had rain last weekend. The grass is perking up. I'm going to watch it closely in the next few weeks to see if it will fill in. I have to make a decision on whether to try it again next year. If I do, I'll definitely plant it in March or April.

As for turffalo vs. St. Augustine, I tried an experiment near a septic sprinkler. St. Augustine is winning. And it's not because the sprinkler is saturating the St. Augustine. The ground has been very dry all summer. The St. Augustine just has thick runners that crowd out the turffalo and deny it sunlight.

I have some pictures on another computer. I'll try to take some more and post them.

gtmillion · Joined: 18 Sep 2005 Posts: 6 Location: Mesquite,TEXAS

Well since the last post i made some changes. I had to go out of town for two weeks and decided to go ahead and replace the ones that looked totally dead with some that I bought from Redentas. Maybe they werent but i just couldn't see how they weren't. Also, I bought a timer and decided to water it at night for 15 minutes while I was gone since your supposed to water it every day for the first week. I think its going strong now, although it still has a long way to go before filling in. I spaced them between 12-18". Its strange though, cause the ones that I had bought at the different place are doing well but they are greener, more compact, and very dense. Im wondering if the guy sold me the shade variety for those flats. Anyways, I'm thinking of buying another flat to help fill in the gaps faster before fall comes around. I called the Tech people before about the grass looking dead and they were very helpful and gave me instructions on how to get the grass looking healthy again. The guy I spoke to guarenteed it to work. His instructions were to use miricale grow, instead I used a combination of Garrett juice and fish emulssion. That really didnt seem to work so I tried to reach him again and never responded.

Texican · Joined: 13 Sep 2006 Posts: 14 Location: San Angelo,TEXAS

Just my two-cents worth about Turffalo and other types of buffalograss: Buffalograss has been tried now for the past 15 years in the hot, semiarid West Texas climate. Perhaps folks don’t know how to take care of it properly, or it’s been advertised too much as a “no water needed” turfgrass, nonetheless, most of the buffalograss yards I have seen are off-color olive-drab, weedy, thin, and just downright ugly. It is most certainly not what most people would consider a high-quality turfgrass even under the best of conditions.

Buffalograss also seems to be readily invaded by Bermudagrass and St Augustine from neighboring yards unless it is protected by some type of physical barrier – like concrete curbing even with reduced water rates.

In this area of Texas, there is no better lawn, sun or shade, than St Augustine. Again, this is just my humble opinion, but I believe St Augustine has gotten a bad rap over the years as a “high-water user”. That reputation is just patently false. There are thousands of St Augustine lawns in West Texas – most of them just plain ‘ol Texas Common St Augustine that have retained their beauty for decades. Bear in mind, they have endured sub-zero freezing, diseases / insects, +115 deg heat, dry desiccating winds, and lord knows what else.

Granted, St Augustine has its share of problems with yellow patch, take-all-root-rot, St Augustine Decline virus, and insects, but all of those problems are easy to correct (except for the SAD virus).

Over the past 30 years, I have tried about every turfgrass known to grow in Texas and St Augustine tops the list for an easy-to-maintain lawn. My two-cents worth…

lou_midlothian_tx · Joined: 01 Dec 2005 Posts: 113 Location: Midlothian,TEXAS

Texican wrote: Just my two-cents worth about Turffalo and other types of buffalograss: Buffalograss has been tried now for the past 15 years in the hot, semiarid West Texas climate. Perhaps folks don’t know how to take care of it properly, or it’s been advertised too much as a “no water needed” turfgrass, nonetheless, most of the buffalograss yards I have seen are off-color olive-drab, weedy, thin, and just downright ugly. It is most certainly not what most people would consider a high-quality turfgrass even under the best of conditions.

Buffalograss also seems to be readily invaded by Bermudagrass and St Augustine from neighboring yards unless it is protected by some type of physical barrier – like concrete curbing even with reduced water rates.

In this area of Texas, there is no better lawn, sun or shade, than St Augustine. Again, this is just my humble opinion, but I believe St Augustine has gotten a bad rap over the years as a “high-water user”. That reputation is just patently false. There are thousands of St Augustine lawns in West Texas – most of them just plain ‘ol Texas Common St Augustine that have retained their beauty for decades. Bear in mind, they have endured sub-zero freezing, diseases / insects, +115 deg heat, dry desiccating winds, and lord knows what else.

Granted, St Augustine has its share of problems with yellow patch, take-all-root-rot, St Augustine Decline virus, and insects, but all of those problems are easy to correct (except for the SAD virus).

Over the past 30 years, I have tried about every turfgrass known to grow in Texas and St Augustine tops the list for an easy-to-maintain lawn. My two-cents worth…

Are you that guy from turf grass forum? Is it texan one or something??