Comparison of Seeded and Vegetative Bermudas
Please Note: The following document was sent to me by a "Research Agronomist" with "Seed Research of Oregon," the company that produces Yukon and La Paloma seed. I agree with their ranking of most varieties. It is posted here with permission. I took the liberty of some minor editing and"deletion of confusing jargon and added my own comments.
Comparison of "Seed Research Bermudas" to other varieties.
(Ranked by finest texture / highest density / highest maintenance at top.)
Underlined Links take you to web sites or cut-sheets for varieties we plant.
Teal Color indicates v arieties NOT AVAILABLE in the Phoenxix area.
Champion sod, Baby sod, FloraDwarf sod, TifEagle sod. Super dwarf & very fine, very dense vegetative varieties used on some putting greens. They need to be mowed daily with a "tif mower" and are difficult to winter over-seed due to extremely dense growth. Not suitable for home lawns.
Tifgreen sod, Tifdwarf sod. Fine textured and high density for putting greens, tees & some fairways, plus occasional sports fields, parks & home lawns. These varieties need to be mowed 2 to 3 times a week with a "tif mower." We would not recommended these high maintenance varieties for home lawns unless you want a "putting green" in your back yard.
Riviera (OKS95-1) seed, Yukon (OKS91-11) seed, Princess 77 seed & sod, Tifway 419 sod, TifSport sod. Fine textured and good density – used for golf course tees, fairways sports fields, parks, schools, high-end home lawns and backyard putting greens (where higher maintenance vegetative bermudas are not the best choice). Riviera is 1st in turf quality and Yukon is 2nd according to the NTEP. We think Yukon is the pettiest, darkest green grass in the Bermuda family. These are all fairly dense grasses, but can be mowed with a rotary mower (once or twice a week). Riviera and Yukon were developed to be extremely cold tolerant and could even stay green here in the Valley through mild winters. Please don't say you weren't warned: In addition to being expensive, these grasses are very slow to germinate and establish.
Santa Ana sod. BOB Sod / Bull's Eye / MS Choice (same variety / 3 different names) sod, Medium texture and high density - for golf tees, fairways & roughs, sports fields, parks, schools, home lawns, etc. Best mowed very close with a "Tif Mower," these varieties have a reputation for being "very thatchy" (especially if maintained with a rotary mower).
LaPaloma (SRX9500) seed, Celebration sod, Transcontinental seed, LA PALOMA HAS BECOME OUR FAVORITE because it's the best compromise between turf quality and ease of maintenance. It establishes quickly, then it's growth slows. It's dense enough to be soft and plush, but doesn't scalp easily or build thatch quickly Plus, LaPaloma outranks Tifway 419 in "Turf Quality" but it's easy to take care of with a rotary mower at any mowing height. (It's as comfortable at 3/8" with a Tif Mower as it is at 2-1/2" with a Riding Mower.)
LaPRIMA Blend seed (special order), SR9554 seed (special order), Mohawk seed, Panama seed, Savannah seed, Sultan seed, Sydney seed, Midlawn sod. Medium texture, good density, + reduced height & growth rate - good choices for fairways & roughs on golf courses, sports fields, parks, schools and home lawns. Most of these were the "high-end seeded varities" a few years ago... (We'd probably use LaPrima or SR9554 if LaPaloma wasn't better and BlackJack wasn't cheaper.)
BlackJack seed, Pyramid seed, ShangriLa seed, Mirage seed, Sunstar seed, Sundance seed, SunDevil II seed, Bermuda Triangle Blend seed, EnviroBlend seed, Midfield sod. – Medium texture with medium density - good for some sports fields, parks, schools, home lawns. These were the best seeded varieties the industry had to offer in the mid to late 1990's. BlackJack is our standard grass. It out-performs Midiron in most categories. Like LaPaloma, it establishes quickly, then it's growth slows. But like Midiron, it's not really dense or soft enough to be nice to walk barefoot in...
MidIron / EZ-Turf [same variety] sod, Quickstand sod, Vamont sod, Quickstart sod, Del Sol seed, Majestic seed, Sahara seed, Jackpot seed, SunDevil seed, Primavera seed, Sonesta seed, Yuma seed. Medium to medium-coarse textured grasses with lower turf density - mostly for low-end applications like parks, schools, retention basins and home lawns. Midiron is the most popular of the Hybrid Bermudas because it's easy to take care of and just dense enough to have good curb appeal, but it's not dense or soft enough to be nice to walk barefoot in...
"Common Bermuda" seed, - Inconsistent, variable texture, color and density – occasionally used on golf roughs, but more commonly used on sports fields, parks, schools, home lawns and roadsides. (I've probably planted it 2 or 3 times in the last 15 years...)
Guymon seed, Cheyenne seed, Wrangler seed, Giant seed, mixtures such as "Pasto Rico" seed, Coastal sod, Tifton 10 sod. Coarse textured, taller growing bermudas - used as pasture and hay crops, occasionally on roadsides and erosion control projects. These varieties are not suitable for home lawns.
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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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Please Note: A few weeks ago the company that hosted our website and email for 10 years disappeared. It's on a new server now, but some pages are still missing. Over the next few weeks, I'll continue re-writing / updating it. If what you're looking for isn't here, call me at 480-540-9850. Our "on-line brochure" is here to solve a problem: I had to make people wait until I found an off-ramp or stopped planting someone's lawn so I could address a brochure or fill-out a work-order. Now it's easy to find out if what I do is right for you. Providing just enough for a "favorable decision" leads to unhappy customers, call-backs and a very bad reputation. I WANT INFORMED CUSTOMERS WHO REFER ME TO THEIR FRIENDS! A piece of paper or a phone call can't provide enough information for an "informed decision." So I tried to answer most of the questions people ask on the phone. Click on links in the text or the FAQ section below: Why haven't I heard of Hydro-Mulching before? If you have questions please call me at 480-540-9850. (I wear a headset so I won't have to stop working to talk.) If you email questions, please include a call-back number. I spend very little time in the office and a lot of time on freeways. Sometimes it can take a week to find an hour to compose a written reply to a question that would take 5 minutes on the phone. When you're ready to schedule, SAVE $ 5.00 BY FILLING IN A WORK ORDER ON-LINE. And if you have not installed sprinklers yet, CHECK OUR ADVICE ABOUT SPRINKLER SYSTEM DESIGN. P.S. I learned just enough "HTML" to write this web site. (Yeah, I did it myself.) I work on it when there's time (but something "more important" always seems to come up) so it's never been quite completed. A few of the links don't work because I didn't get to them yet. Feel free to Email suggestions for making the web site better. We're proud of our current or former membership in our industry's Trade Associations. Click on their logo to check out their web sites.
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