THUD!

That was the sound of my forehead hitting the table after reading the first paragraph of that article. I know if I read more my eyeballs will start shooting blood.

The gist of the article is that scientists have determined that bermuda seed can start to sprout at soil temps of 60 degrees F rather than 80 degrees F. I've never heard of that, but we'll soon see because golfcourselawn has already seeded his lawn. Remember that it was other scientists that told us we needed 80 degree soil.

Please keep us posted. We are with you even if we sound skeptical or even negative.

Two years ago I seeded Triangle blend bermuda in April. I had to reseed in late May, because even with proper watering, most of my seed never came up. NC is probably not as hot as MS, so the OP may be okay seeding this early.

Also, the OP said he didn't plant Zoyzia in the shady areas because it doesn't repair itself very quickly. Believe me, Centipede does NOT repair itself very quickly either.

Well let me first say I am a golfaholic, so we share passions. Next Bermuda is undeniable the fastest self repairing grass known to man and why it is the first choice of all golf courses who have the option to grow it in fairways, rough, and tee boxes.

With that said TifSport is now becoming the standard for fairways, tee boxes, and rough. It fine texture deep color fast aggressive growth, cold tolerance, early green up makes it superior for the application.

When it comes to greens Bent grass is what the first choice is if possible. However once you move far enough south, Bent is not doable. In those cases TifEagle is now the standard for greens.

Ok now on to Princess and common seeded varieties. I somewhat object to the statement Princess is the most attractive. Personally I think a blend is more desirable that contains Princess. There is three huge drawback to Princess:

Last to green up
First to go dormant
Very susceptible to winter kill.

This restricts it to the Gulf Coast regions in the US. This is why I say a blend is preferable IMO like Triangle. One of the three seeds is likely to dominate and find its home.

Now to address germination temps. I personally do not care what one group of scientist say that Bermuda will germinate at soil temps of 60. Obliviously there will be some, but nothing compared to 70+. These guys are a minority.

My most trusted source of info is from OSU (sorry Ohio fans I mean Oklahoma State). OSU has the nations best research, test, and environmental labs there is. Every research developer and university send there sample to OSU environmental labs for testing of germination temps. Light, soil, and cold tolerance conditions. They basically have a 15,000/ft2 vault that they can control the temps to 1/10 of a degree, light, humidity, and moisture. The consensus of all the R&Âs that go there is 70+ degrees give the highest rate of germination.

Golfcourse donÂt let my comments discourage you, I do not think your early planting will fail. I just think you would have had better results if you had waited a while longer. Even though you planted early and may not get high germination rates, Princess is fairly aggressive and should fill in by August. My only concern is where you live, because if you get some extended cold periods below freezing, you could get quite a set back or loss with young shallow roots next winter.

Think about this if your budget can afford this. Over seed with something like Riviera, Mohawk, or both in late May.

TW

Is there a particular blend you recommend?