Thanks for the location. You have all the heat and none of the early morning fog that LA is noted for closer to the coast.

Here is the picture that says the most to me.

You have the Verde buff plug in the middle surrounded by bermuda. There's no crabgrass in those pix. It will be a challenge for the buff but I think you'll eventually be happy with it. See how much more dense the buff plug is than the bermuda? That is what will allow the buffalo to overtake the bermuda. Mow it high and see what happens. It will take a little while for the buff to get going. Once it does, you'll be happy.

As for the seeds, the bermuda will overrun any seeded variety of buffalo. Bermuda is much more competitive. Verde, on the other hand, will give bermuda a good race. If you can return the seeds, do that. Wait for the Verde to get established and use the Verde to plug into the area you are planning to seed. In the mean time, keep the clover going.

The clover makes a good soil prep plant. Good choice.

I have a picture of the Tech Turf variety of buffalo. It looks to me to be very much like Verde. Note how dense this is.

{{gwi:78817}}

That lawn was mowed to 2.5 inches and was ready to be mowed. It is a very dense turf. You can see how hard it is trying to spread over the concrete. That was growth since the last mowing, so it will spread nicely for you once it starts.

question

should i keep watering weekly ? to keep the buff going ? or should i cut back to let the bermuda die out ?

also will the buff grow all year round (since i am in a hot climate) or will it go dormant over the "winter"

Do you get hard/killing frosts? If so, the buffalo grass will likely go dormant. If not, it'll stay green year round.

You can't kill bermuda by withholding water. It will go dormant and never die. The only natural thing I know of that will put a dent in bermuda is shade. You should raise the mower height for your buffalo grass so it will help provide that shade. You can safely raise it all the way up.

am not going to mow at all for the next 8 months, hope that the buff will fill in nicely, have another 200 plugs coming next week.

That should work for you instead of the seed. I was hoping you'd get enthused by the pix of the Tech Turf. Seeded buffalo just looks like what you see by the side of the road. It never gets very dense and cannot keep weeds out.

put in another 300 buffalograss plugs. keep yer fingers crossed folks

Hi riegersteve,
I am also planting buffalo grass (Turfallo Tech Turf) this year, I planted 420 plugs on April 8th and just picked up another 420 plugs to plant tomorrow. I noticed in your pic that you are also using mulch...When I told the salesperson that I was using mulch, he looked at me sideways and said "I wouldn't do that, the mulch will slow down the spread of the buffalo as the runners wont have contact with the earth". I plan to plant my plugs this weekend and now I am not sure if I should remove the mulch first or??? Any thoughts?

my soil is clay, and i live in zone 9, used soil/mulch/bark mix on top of soil to keep it somewhat moist) so far the grass is doing fine, most survived the 90+ degree weather weve had for the past week. only 13 of 400 died