turtle turf

DTOBLER – posted 01 September 2006 21:17

I AM IN SAN DIEGO AND I HAVE A GRASS CALLED TURTLE TURF IN MY FRONT YARD. LATELY, IT HAS TURNED YELLOW. I SPRAYED IT WITH FUNGUSIDE BUT THIS HAS NOT HELPED. SHOULD I USE IRONITE TO BRING BACK THE COLOR? IT ALMOST LOOKS LIKE THE LAWN MOWER MIGHT HAVE DONE THIS BUT THEN AGAIN I AM NOT A YARD SPECAILIST. ANY INFO WOULD BE GREAT.

Grassguy – posted 03 September 2006 19:40

maybe this will help:TurtleTurf™ is a trade name for ‘BarKoel’ tufted hairgrass, also known as Prairie Junegrass (Koeleria macrantha). It can be used by itself as a seeded lawn or in a seed mix with several of the fine fescues (Western Drought Defy™ is one of theprairie junegrass lawn (33924 bytes) fescue-hairgrass mix trade names). Currently it is used in some areas of the country as golf course rough and, to some extent, as home lawn. Tufted hairgrass is tough, drought-tolerant, and slow growing, needing mowing less frequently. It apparently needs only minimal fertilizer, and develops disease problems when over-fertilized. Its drawbacks seem to be that it cannot tolerate high foot traffic and the seed cost is high, as it is not a good producer of seed. Mixing with fine fescues makes the seed mix less expensive.

TexanOne – posted 04 September 2006 00:40

Unfortunately, there isn’t much history or documentation about Koeleria macrantha lawn culture.

I also read that turtle turf originally came from the Netherlands. Why this stuff was brought in from Europe when other native cultivars are growing all over the North American continent is a mystery to me.

However, and to try to help out here – your turtle turf is basically a cool-season grass. If you live in coastal San Diego, you shouldn’t have many problems with it and the climate should be to its liking. Just keep it watered and see if it comes back. Perhaps it got heat stressed and went dormant in the hot days there the past few weeks?

If you live in Inland San Diego, keep it watered well or it will probably go dormant in the heat. If it does go dormant, just let it stay that way and water “normally” until cool temperatures return otherwise you’ll risk overstressing and killing it trying to bring it back.

These are just basic cool-season grass tips. I would like to know about your experiences with turtle turf and how you like it.