What is best grasses
Bermuda, Zoysia, St Augustine and Centipede Warm Season Grasses
hey my name is Jason creo and you're
watching the like your life today I'm
going to show you a bunch of different
varieties of warm season grasses maybe
you need help identifying which kind of
grass you have and we can talk about
each type a little bit about it so maybe
you can understand which type of grass
will be best for a specific situation in
your lawn stay tuned far let's start
with Bermuda grass that's the most
dominant grass that's in my area you
know you saw it farms are growing hybrid
Bermuda but there's also common Bermuda
that appears you know any random cow
pasture you but you can see Bermuda here
this this Bermuda you know has some
grain to it could definitely be greener
there's color things about Bermuda to
point out one it's extremely drought
tolerant you know we had a couple years
ago we had an extreme drought where we
went without rain for two months and
most of the lawns that were Bermuda I
did not see any of them that didn't come
back the following year the drought was
sorted in the fall so but you know as
opposed to centipede and zoysia on some
of them really took a hit and some of
them lost a lot of turf that following
spring another thing that's good about
Bermuda Express very aggressively you
know it needs full Sun it's not a shade
tolerant grass I see some people and
they'll take some sod to have a bare
spot underneath the trees it's not
getting a lot of Sun they'll put Bermuda
sod there and I thought oh that's not
gonna work out too good so it needs full
Sun but will spread very fast a lot of
times people have a real thin Bermuda
yard or a bare spot and they'll say you
know should I you know oversee this or
resaw it and I'm thinking no let's just
put the fertilizer to it and it will
spread Bermuda you can put heavy
nitrogen to it I was reading in a
publication of the day that said 5
pounds of nitrogen per year was ideal
you know now I don't usually put that
much on mine but it would it would
definitely take off if you put 5 pounds
of nitrogen to it now they were
recommending not doing that all at one
time but splitting it up into multiple
apik
nations and obviously you need water if
you're going to use that much fertilizer
Bermuda can you know you see it people
use it for putting greens and in their
lawn so I mean it can adapt to very low
mowing or letting it go I'm taller
obviously if you're going to keep it low
you got to keep the water to it and
you're going to mow it frequently you
can't let it grow out for two weeks and
then decide I want to keep it low you're
going to cut the green out of it and can
really stunt back the Bermuda so if you
want to keep it nice and tight you're
gonna have to mow it quite frequently
because I like I said it does grow very
fast when fertilized and hot weather and
plenty of water thing about Bermuda
grass it does not necessarily choke out
weeds very well of all the for warm
season grasses I'm dealing with in
Bermuda Georgia centipede in st.
Augustine I would rate it the worst as
far as if you didn't treat a Bermuda
lawn
it most likely is going to be covered in
crabgrass and bunch of other weeds as
well so where sometimes in the other
grass types you can the ones that are
not treated still can look presentable
[Applause]
one other thing about Bermuda grass it
it is a tolerates most herbicides pretty
well usually of centipedes and st.
augustine's are going to be more
sensitive to herbicides than Bermuda
grass alright this is now we've moved
over into a voyage alone this is a Z 52
variety of Zoysia this one was just
freshly mowed but you know has good
colors what I like about Zoysia is the
ability to really choke out the weeds it
just grows nice and thick thicker than
Bermuda lawns in general and when it
does that typically it makes it very
crowded for weeds to join in so it's all
well taken care of Georgia line really
looks great and if I had my choice here
in the South Georgia would be probably
what I would pick there's different
varieties as or the primary two that I
see mayor is e52
and emeralds Oranje this one being the Z
52 you see we'll look at the emeralds or
later but the Z 52 it's gonna have a
wider grass blade than the emerald Zoya
and Bermuda zeorge is a much slower
growing turf than Bermuda so and it's
not as drought tolerant so if you get if
it starts to turn brown lose the color
out you definitely want to put the water
in to it because if it suffers drought
damage or winter damage then it's going
to be a lot slower to recover than a
Bermuda lawn would another positive
about Georgia lawns is it will tolerate
sun or some shade much more shade
tolerant than Bermuda so what I've seen
a lot of times is somebody will have a
Bermuda lawn that's full Sun they'll
have a tree or part of the yard it's not
really getting enough Sun the Bermuda
will get real thin and they'll just put
some Zoysia in that area usually when
they do that it's emeralds Oranje it
emerald is more shade tolerant than z50
- and in my opinion the emerald kind of
blends in a little bit better than the
z50 - with Bermuda so usually you know
if you have had that situation you know
you
can tell the tuber and grass types but
it blends together where it's not quite
so noticeable zoycha lawns typically my
favorite and the yards typically my best
looking yards I take care of or the
Zorzi lawns like said they just do a
great job of choking the weeds out and
they take less nitrogen than Bermuda
lawn I think recommended around two
pounds of nitrogen per thousand square
feet for the calendar year where I like
I said a Bermuda you go five pounds or
you know some people probably even do
more than that what's funny about grass
types I don't know if I'll ever fully
understand it but certain grass types
get certain weeds in it that other
grasses don't like I was saying Bermuda
lawns and re-air gonna have tons of
crabgrass if we don't put a pre-emergent
out where Georgia lawns and centipede
sing are scenes you know you might still
use a pre-emergent but if you didn't
they're probably not going to be nearly
as much crab grass as in a Bermuda lawn
you know nutsedge seems to show up
mostly in Bermuda but you definitely see
it in Joyce's way I see a lot of Maya
virginia button weed in Zoysia lawns or
seen Bermuda is also alright a sibling
get up side by side of Bermuda versus
centipede you see here the Bermuda and
as you go over it you see it's a little
bit lighter colored it's centipede and
I've seen this for usually when you have
Bermuda and centipede side-by-side in my
experience usually the centipede starts
creeping over into the Bermuda unless
you put some sort of application on to
keep the centipede back and there's a
lot of products that centipede doesn't
necessarily like they can keep it from
encroaching over into the Bermuda you
know some people call centipede lazy
man's grass some people call centipede
lazy man's grass what I interpret by
that is if you do nothing to a centipede
line it still can actually look DC I
mean they just seem to not be as full of
weeds and they take a lesser amount of
fertilizer I think you know no more than
two pounds of nitrogen per thousand
square feet in a calendar year
centipede
is more shade tolerant than Bermuda but
not as shade-tolerant Georgia see in
this situation you got trees and
underneath the trees you know the
centipede gets real thin particularly in
this situation on the north side of the
trees so it's gonna get blocked for some
Sun and struggle a little bit centipede
spreads by these runners is what people
calling so stolen so they have these
above-ground runners and you'll see if
you have a bare spot sometimes you'll
see the centipede start creating these
stolens and then fill in those bare
spots and on that note you know if
you've got a thin centipede yard or a
lot of bear spots you might want to go
easy on the pre-emergent because it can
keep the those stolons from being able
to root into the ground it's a
pre-emergent can hinder that all right
show you a little bit of st. Augustine
we don't have a lot of that in my am a
little bit far north for it but we do
have some this isn't a best looking st.
Augustine but but that's a nice thing
also spreads by stolens those above
ground runners st. all seen more shade
tolerant than the centipede has these
wider blades on it real I like a real
thick st. Augustine lawn but has wider
leaf blade on it and then centipede
probably twice as wide as far as
chemical applications and fertilizer we
typically treat a centipede and st.
Augustine virtually the same at least in
my area as far as the type fertilizer
putting on I'm using an eighteen one
nine blend on the centipede in Saint
Augustine on Bermuda and zoysia I'm
using a 3806
again that was going to vary depending
on what you're trying to do the type of
soil you're dealing with but that's what
using here in my area st. Augustine's
typically considered the most sensitive
to herbicides of the warm season grass
is definitely more so than Georgia or
Bermuda and you know some things there's
some products you could use on a I'm
thinking on a
centipede or st. Augustine typically on
centipede yards they don't necessarily
like met so if you're on you can use it
for its label but it's not favorable
doesn't like it a whole lot and change
ups a common product but that centipede
seems to tolerate real well but you have
to go to a lower rate for Saint
Augustine
neither of them like 240 very much and
lastly I'm going to show you the
emeralds I like I said it's more the
most shade tolerant option usually when
somebody has a shade issue I try to
encourage them to to get some emeralds
Oranje now again I tell people it won't
grow in a closet now it has to have some
sunlight but it's got a very fine blade
to it grows real thick when it's healthy
and I find you know it seems like what
I've found sometimes on a slope we're
Bermuda grass even if it has plenty of
Sun it can sometimes get get thin and
have some erosion problems where the
Georgia just grows so nice and thick it
seems to hold better on the slope you
can see right here actually side-by-side
this is and this is fairly new sod this
here's not doing very well at all but
you can see the Z 52 you know that blade
versus the versus the emerald blade let
me see if I can get him stop by side for
you all right here we go
anyway one on the left is Z 52 one on
the right emeralds are much finer blade
one other consideration is how much
grass costs you know if you go to buy
side typically in Meyer Bermuda is the
cheapest and you're gonna pay almost
double to get zords centipede somewhere
in between in st. Augustine as well so
Bermuda typically the cheapest or the
most expensive you know and it's not
that one is necessarily better another
yeah if I had an ideal situation I'd
like to have a saucier line but you know
in some situations Bermuda has its
definite advantages of being drought
tolerant being very Hardy very tolerant
of most herbicides so you know there's
advantages disadvantages of what you're
looking for and the type situation
that you're dealing with in your lawn
but it is helpful to be somewhat
educated especially if you're going to
put sod down or you've got you know
sometimes people just put the wrong
grass for the wrong situation so for
instance here it's not necessarily
recommended in my area just north of
Birmingham to use st. Augustine grass
though some people do have it it gets a
little bit cold in the winter for the
st. Augustine but the further south you
go the more you see you know if you get
a little bit further north and some of
the these warm season grasses are going
to struggle and you get in these
transition zones where they have both
warm season and cool season grasses hope
this is able to help you understand
maybe identify your grass type know a
little bit about it let me hear from you
in the comments getting done so go ahead
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a lot
