Hybrid SPF-30 Kentucky Bluegrass Seed

Been mixing with turf type tall fescue for past 4 years in 1 acre full sun Ohio lawn. Not perfect as it still suffers damage from drought and heavy use (dogs and grandkids) However, it recovers strong and thick I am now to the point that I do not need to seed damage as it will self repair. Germinates well with early season sowing, but not as fast as fescue.

This seed takes some nurturing to get started. You can expect to see seedlings about 2-3 weeks out. At around 5-6 weeks you'll see the grass starting to get stronger and thicker. However, don't expect things to look lush till around 8 weeks. There will still be some seedlings that didn't take or are still small. At this point if, put down some weed and feed to kill off the weeds that came in to overtake the new seedlings and help grow the grass the rest of the way. It's important to note: Not to fertilize or place weed killer down on new grass, until it's stabilized. Most products say to wait a month, I would wait the 2 months for this brand. In the meantime, manually pull out any large weeds/crabgrass and mow the other grass low (If you're over-seeding).

DO NOT BUY THIS GRASS SEED! It RUINED MY LAWN with Poa annua "annual bluegrass"! Last year my front lawn did not have ANY of the light-colored clump grass known as "annual bluegrass". None whatsoever. It was entirely Bermuda grass, and because I am not a fan of Bermuda grass, I cut it down to the ground last fall and sowed this "hybrid bluegrass" along with some of the "Midnight Kentucky Bluegrass" from the same seed producer: Outsidepride. I had previously used their "Midnight Kentucky Bluegrass", about a year ago in the spring of 2023. With that seed I did have a problem with annual bluegrass that was obviously mixed in with the Kentucky Bluegrass, however the problem was not so great that I would have avoided using seed from the same producer again. Last fall I applied both the "Midnight Kentucky Bluegrass" and this "SPF-30 Heat and Drought Tolerant Hybrid Bluegrass, both from the same producer, Outsidepride. Now my front lawn has about as much annual bluegrass as Kentucky bluegrass, and the ONLY POSSIBLE WAY for this to have happened is if it arrived here mixed in with one or the other, most likely both, of these two varieties of Kentucky bluegrass seed from Outsidepride! Because this problem was not nearly this severe when I used the Midnight Kentucky variety, it is somewhat likely that most of the Poa annua seed was mixed in with the SPF-30 Hybrid bluegrass. But, whichever variety it was that contained the bulk of this awful clump grass, IT CAME FROM OUTSIDEPRIDE. I will never, ever use this brand of grass seed again. I encourage other people who take pride in their lawns to avoid this brand like avoiding the plague. It is obvious to me that this brand has a major problem with keeping unwanted species of grass and weeds out of their grass fields. I do not know anything about how large-scale producers of grass seed deal with this, and my sense is that this is an ongoing difficulty in their business endeavor. But as the producer of seed, it is their responsibility to have some means to make certain that the seed they produce and package is reasonably pure, and not contaminated with an unwanted species like Poa annua. If they are not able to do that, then they should simply get out of the business.

Compared to other varieties, this one had very low yield. It was planted in three areas. The first area was a new planting on fresh loam. The second area was a reseed. The third, which is adjacent to the second, was a top seed. For the first area, the spread loam was prepared with half the typical density of starter fertilizer, which has provided great results for us in other such plantings with other seed. The seed germinated and blue grass did emerge, but it is rather sparse. The plants that did emerge are now over 1.5 inches. At this germination yield, we need at least three times the seeding density compared to other seeds to produce a sustainable lawn. We often get these results with seed that is too old. We will have to reseed this area. For the second area, we power raked away the dead grass, tilled in about a half inch of compost to a depth of two inches, applied the seed, and then top dressed with about three-eighths inch of loam. The third area was also power raked to dethatch it and it was top seeded with the remaining seed, since the fescue grass there was already established, although all of the second and third areas were in full sun. The second and third areas were carefully monitored for moisture to ensure they did not dry out and because of the cooperation of the rain, the sprinklers only had to be used twice in three weeks. In the second area, the germination yield appears to match what we saw in the first area, but they are about equalled by the germination of weeds. In the third area, we cannot make a determination, since any new blue grass sprouts could be mistaken for spreading fescue and vice versa. Overall, given the cost of this seed, it is of lesser value to us than the Scotts or Lessco offerings. If we could have had similar germination rates, and the promise of the color and look would have materialized, we would not have minded the cost difference since the labor and other materials cost a lot more. However, the consequence of having to do much of the work again has made this a bad investment. I gave the seed three stars, because if we would have seeded it very heavily, we might have been okay with it - although I am just assuming that the rest of the vendor's claims are true about the quality of the color and drought tolerance. Maybe the problem was just that they sent old, water damaged, or heat-damaged seed, but we have no way of knowing.