Good question, I am a Bermuda sod farmer and I have never heard of A-G1. I know what T-10 is. Is there another name it goes by?

IÂm not aware of another name.

I am sodding nearly 28,000 sq ft and want a hybrid that I can maintain at or below 1" using a Walker Rotary Mower. I can also follow up cut with a reel mower. There are a few hybrids I have read about but have yet to see, that are grown a reasonable distance from my home. They are GN-1 and Bullseye Bermuda. Another grass that I have access to and is grown only 60 miles away is El Toro Zoysia. Common Bermuda, Hybrid Bermuda and Fescue are prevalent in our area.

A part of my yard is set up with an elevated tee box and a 50-70 yard golf shot to a practice green (not for putting). I intend to sod the tee box and practice green with Tifgreen, and reel mow the green at ½". I want to be able to play shorter shots off areas (other than the tee box) and IÂm not sure how the Zoysia will recover from possible divots. I am told, by the Sod Farm, that the El Toro will be much easier to maintain than Bermuda. What ever I sod needs to hold up well and of course look great. I donÂt mind a reasonable level of maintenance to keep it looking sharp, but not daily more like weekly or every 5 days, if necessary, sometimes during the year.

Thanks for your response! Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Hey we have something in common. I have a putting green and a few T-boxes to hit from. My green use to be Tifgreen, but this year I ripped it out and replaced it with TifEagle. Look around and see if TifEagle is available. Tifgreen is good grass but has some problems. TifEagle is even finer texture, darker color and much improved over Tifgreen, and quite a step up from even TifDwarf the old standard for putting greens. It is now the standard for golf greens.

GN-1 I know of, it was developed in California by the Greg Norman Turf Company. I have not seen any first hand and can only comment based on NTEP reports. GN-1 scores pretty good, but not the top dog in the show. Some others with better ratings you might check on availability is TifSport (number uno), Tifway-I (aka 419) Tifway-II, Patriot, and Celebration.

Wished I could help you on the A-G1, but from what I can tell no one has heard of it. I scanned NTEP and some trade publications, nothing, notta, zip, and even the web so there is nothing I can compare it too.

I suggest you go to this website and take a look:

http://www.ntep.org/data/bg02/bg02_07-10f/bg0207ft06a.txt

or

http://www.ntep.org/reports/bg02/bg02_07-10f/bg02_07-10f.htm

Thanks for the information! Your T-Boxes and Green sounds great! WeÂve been working on our yard for three years and now that we are so close to being finished and able to enjoy it we canÂt wait for grass, thatÂs why we decided to bite the bullet and go with sod. IÂll post a few snaps when weÂre finished, I owe the pool forum a few too.

I will take your advice & try to find TifEagle somewhere nearby, if not I can get it within 200 miles, or so, and it sounds like it may be worth the trip considering the amount of sod weÂll need for the green.

I do know Tifsport, Bullseye and GN-1 are grown 150 to 200 miles away, I will check on the availability Monday. IÂm not sure about Celebration or Patriot, IÂll research those too. Tiffgreen, Tifway 419, Santa Ana, A-G1, and a grass the grower calls CT-3 are all grown within 30 miles of my home and are available for a good value.

Do you think it is reasonable to go with Tifway 419 and use a Walker Rotary Mower most of the time if we keep it under control? Or do I need to go with another grass? I will have a "Spring Tine Dethatcher" attachment to use if needed and I will also have a Reel mower to trim it up and fine tune it sometimes too.

You didnÂt mention the El Toro Zoysia, so I assume you think IÂm better off with one of the Hybrid Bermudas? Thanks again for the advice!

I did not mention El Toro because the varieties of Bermuda you have referenced are a lot finer textured and much darker in color. Nothing wrong with El Toro and worth considering if you have some shade issues to deal with.

You did raise a red flag in my mind when you asked " Do you think it is reasonable to go with Tifway 419 and use a Walker Rotary Mower most of the time if we keep it under control? Or do I need to go with another grass?

Here is the problem all the varieties you are looking at are fine and dwarf textured. Tifway-419 can be mowed with a rotary type mower as long as it is a quality one that can get down to 1-inch, but performs better between ½ to ¾ of an inch with a reel type mower. TifSport will need a reel type mower because it needs to be down around ½ inch. But here is the kicker the TifGreen or TefEagle go one step beyond a reel mower if you are serious about a putting green as they need a very expensive greens mower. A greens mower is a reel type on steroids and a precision machine requiring a lot of maintenance in the form of blade sharpening and alignment.

I think you mentioned 28,000?ft2 lawn and that gets into the riding type, and if you are serious about using a fine textured Bermuda like TifSport, you need to get a riding with ganged reel mower, and a greens mower for the putting green. So think carefully about this. If you intend to maintain 2/3 of an acre of grass and cannot do this, then you need to consider another grass type that does not need to be mowed at an inch or less. Zoysia falls into this category and is maintained between 1 to 2 inches. Not to mention Zoysia grows slowly and only requires mowing every 7 to 10 days vs 2 to 3 times a week for Bermuda, and every other day for a putting green.

If budget is a concern I suggest you look at Tifway-I (aka 419), only one grass I know outperforms in its class which is TifSport. However Tifway in my area sells for 65 to 85 per pallet, and Tifsport 2 to 3 times that cost. I sure hope you have an idea how much TifGreen and TifEagle go for, prices vary from 500 to 900 per pallet.

I do want that dark green color so it sounds like that will rule out the El Toro Zoysia. I haven't purchased the mower yet and I wanted a Walker Rotary only for ease of use and picking up the grass. They claim that I can mow the A-G1 with a rotary, but I know that, regardless of the hybrid variety, a reel mower is what I'll likely need for the look I want. I'll research my options next week, and maybe I should go with Tifway and Tifgreen.

The A-G1 will cost me .28 per sq ft and the Tifgreen is from the same sod farm, I think it's the same or a little less. I don't yet know the price for Tifway.

Thanks again for the help, I'll let you know which way I go.

I found Tifway-2 nearby and have decided to use it for the T-Box.

The green is a practice pitching green not for putting, only for hitting pitch shots to. IÂm also installing a green for putting (only) that will be artificial grass over concrete, which has already been poured. My question is regarding the grass type for the practice pitching green and the fringe area around, and in front of, the green.

I was thinking of possibly using the same grass type for the green as the fringe and then defining the green from the fringe by mowing height. Like reel mowing the green at 3/8"Â1/2" and the fringe at 5/8"-3/4". Can I do this with Tifway2 or would Tifgreen make a better surface? Or should I use Tifway2 for the fringe and Tifgreen for the green?

The rest of my yard, including the area between the T-Box and Green will either be Tall Fescue, mowed at 21/2" or the A-G1 I originally mentioned at 1".

Thanks in advance for your opinion!

Use what ever grass you use for the whole yard. Any of the hybrids are fine for a pitching green. You will get the different look from mowing height. Tifway can be mowed down to 3/8 or even 1/4 with proper maintenance. It is when you cross over to a putting green when you need the dwarf and micro-drwarf varieies mowed less than a 1/4 inch.

Not sure what Tifway sells for in CA, but here from TX east to GA Tifway is king and the least expensive other than U3. Tifway around here runs from 10 to 20 cents per ft/2 depending on location and quantity.

Thanks! I think Tifgreen will be about .24, Tifway about .26 and Tifway2 will be around .30. But then again regular gas is $3.89, in California, and Diesel Fuel is now $4.20. So I guess I can't blame them.

Thanks again for the info and make it a great day!

Texas-Weed

I just saw the photos you posted, in Sept 07, of your sod farm and your Tifway II Â. Beautiful!

I have a few more questions. After visiting a few sod farms, and a little research, IÂm down to a few choices for the best grass for my yard.

Tifway II is produced within 100 miles of my home and it will cost me .28 per square ft. They will install it for another .10, so it is .38 installed. We visited the farm yesterday and it is good looking grass and by far my best deal.

The other grass grown by the same company, but 300 miles away, is Bull-eye (MS-Choice). IÂm told that it has a much thicker blade and that it also grows more laterally with blades crossing each other and can therefore be mown at taller heights with a rotary mower, without scalping. Due to trucking costs it is very much higher priced. .42 + .10 for installation = .52 per sq ft.

Due to cost and the higher ratings with NTEP the Tifway II looks like a no brainier and even the Sod Farm told me Bulls-eye is not worth the extra cost. But, since I want to mow it at 1" with a rotary mower, before I make a final decision I wanted to ask you to look at few things in the ratings for me. Genetic Color & Scalping. With Color they are equal with MS-Choice a little darker, MS-Choice 7.3 and Tifway 7.2, so I can get a good color with either, which is important to me. The scalping ratings look a lot different with MS-Choice at 8.6 and Tifway 6.1. Leads me to think that there might be a big difference in the way my yard appears if I want to mow at 1" using a rotary mower. However, I do know that they both can grow thatch.

Obviously, IÂd much rather go with Tifway II because of cost. But I also intend to do my own maintenance and want my yard to look good, and not scalped, at 1". What are your thoughts? Thanks!

OK what the heck is Bull-Eye? And where are you seeing the ratings.

As long as you get a really good grade on the lawn, there is no problem maintaining Tifway at 1-inch. The problem is if you are not a frequent mower. For example if you let it get to 2 inches or more, it will look scalped because all you will be left with is stems and twigs. Mow when it gets to 1-1/2 inches back down to 1-inch and no problem.

Color is dominated by water and fertlizer.

West Coast Turf apparently markets MS-Choice under the name of Bulls-Eye Bermuda. So in the ntep.org, reports that you sent me to, it is listed as MS-Choice. Under the Bermuda reports, on ntep.org, select "other data" and page down and you will see the scalping ratings.

I appreciate your help! As I said it looked like a no brainier to go with Tifway II but I didnÂt want to miss anything, or make a mistake, so I wanted your professional opinion. I think I need to mow twice each week in the heat, but it will be once weekly minimum.

IÂll try to post a few snaps during May. Thanks again!