We Have New Grasses.

   In a hot climate like in Phoenix (where 'cool season grasses' like Ryegrass and Bluegrass just won't grow year round), the choice for a lawn has always been Common Bermuda because it's cheap and easy to plant or sodded Hybrid Bermudas (Mid-iron, Santa-ana or Tif-green) that are nicer but are more expensive and difficult to plant and maintain.

   That's a problem the Golf Course Industry is well aware of.  Hybrids are expensive to plant and maintain, and aren't all that well suited for fairways and roughs.  If they planted common bermuda, nobody would want to come.  In the 1970's, the Golf Course Industry started funding research grants for the creation of new, improved seeded bermudas.  One of them went to New Mexico State University.

   Because of that, in 1988 a new grass called 'NuMex Sahara' became available.  Within a few years, more than a dozen 'improved seeded Bermudas' hit the market.  These new grasses were bred for improved appearance, durability, low water usage, low maintenance, disease and insect resistance, improved cold tolerance, etc.

   These new grasses are planted from seed (so they're easy to plant), but unlike Common Bermuda, they aren't aggressive or invasive, generally won't make seed-heads between mowings, and don't cause allergy problems.

   Designed for golf courses, sports fields and residential lawns, they're darker green and more dense than Common Bermuda and make a uniform lawn that's tolerant of traffic, more resistant to disease, use less water and have a very short winter dormancy (they don't turn brown for nearly half the year).

   In the mdi 1990s, the 'Second Generation' of these new improved seeded Bermudas hit the market.  Grasses like Yuma, Sultan, Del-Sol and Blu-Muda are very similar to each other.  In the National Turftgrass Evaluation Program Trials their differences are often so close that they're within the margin of error for the tests. If planted side-by-side, few people would be able to find a difference between many of them.

   Initially, there was not enough seed to meet the demand for many of these new high-end varieties.  So the big seed producers started selling coated seed.  The coating is inert and doubles the size and weight of the seed so it's easier to handle and gives them twice as much to sell.  But it washes off in the hydroSeeding machine.  When we are forced to use coated seed we have to use twice as much to get the same seed count.  (Be careful if you try to compare application rates.) That has a huge impact on the cost of high-end varieties like Riviera and Yukon.

   Seed producers remove the hull (or skin) to improve germination, but that makes it more fragile. (Un-hulled seed germinates slower but remains dormant if conditions aren't just right.) If we only used hulled seed (and your sprinklers didn't cover evenly), some of it could die before it germinates and you'd have bare patches in your lawn.

   By mixing hulled and un-hulled seed we're able to give you a second chance to germinate bare areas if there's a problem with your sprinkler coverage.  That lowers our profits a little, but it also gives you a nicer lawn quicker and buys us fewer call-backs and more referrals. (And it puts 'cheaper' copy-cat competitors at a disadvantage.)  Because it can lay dormant when the soil is too cold for it to germinate, un-hulled seed also allows us to plant a temporary rye-grass lawn that can turn into a beautiful, permanent lawn when the soil warms up in the Spring.

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Nature's Way HydroSeeding
Post Office Box 1114
Queen Creek, AZ 85242
www.WhySod.com
(480) 540-9850
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