How to Plant Buffalo Grass from Sods

Buffalo grass comes in male and female variety and for grass; the female variety is preferred as the male variety sprouts long stems that look ghastly in a well-kept lawn.

You would receive the plugs or sods in a well-packaged box. When you get the plugs, they might require some watering immediately. Plugs on the outer edges might require more watering compared to those in the center

The plugs are to be kept in the sun for some time during the day every day. The watering and keeping in the sun is to be repeated every day until you are ready to plant them.

If you receive the sods in winter, you can plant them immediately but it is better to wait until the spring season for planting them. Keeping in the sun and watering is to be continued until you are ready to plant them. During winter if you see the plugs turning brown, do not worry, it is natural. The buffalo grass will turn dark green once again after you put them in sun for some time.

This is the 2nd part of our series of buffalo grass articles. If you want to read, or looking for how to plant grass from seeds, then your article is the first part, entitled : Buffalo Grass Planting Facts

Soil preparation for the plugs or sods

When you wish to plant the runners directly in to the soil, you have to make sure that the soil is well prepared before you plant the plugs. The soil preparation can be done by following the steps given below.

1. The soil can be prepared for planting by loosening the soil with help of rototiller. After using rototiller, the soil can be watered lightly and then exposed to sunlight before planting the grass.
2. Prepare the soil well in advance of planting so that weathering with sun light breaks the soil and the excess moisture is taken away.
3. The soil should be tested and the inadequacies of soil made known so the supplemental food can be given to the soil in form of micronutrients. These micronutrients will make the soil rich in calcium, potassium, and phosphates.
4. Fertilizers’ can be added as and when required. The fertilizer addition can be done after watering the soil.
5. Adding compost to the soil will give you better results than just adding the fertilizers and soil nutrients. Compost has all the soil nutrients & fertilizers to give you a rich crop of buffalo grass.
6. When using fertilizers, please make sure that super phosphates is added in the required quantities to the fertilizers you are using. Phosphorous is an essential ingredient for proper growing of buffalo grass.

Buffalo Grass propagation is by surface runners also called as stolons. The deep underground stems are absent and thus the grass can be removed from the flowerbeds very easily than the other lawn grass. The seeds thus planted in wrong places can be removed easily. The buffalo grass is a fine textured blue green grass that feels soft under the feet.

Buffalo grass cannot be planted in area that has heavy foot traffic. The grass cannot survive where other types of grass has been planted. Particularly where the Kentucky grass has been planted, the buffalo grass cannot survive.

Where the buffalo grass is to be put, the earlier grass should be weeded out by outing herbicide and making sure that the previous version of the lawn is eliminated. This alone will ensure that the buffalo grass will grow properly and will give you the least of the problems.