Buffalo Grass Planting Facts

Decisions, decisions, and more decisions, this is what you are confronted with when you make a new lawn. Do not despair. Help is at hand if you want to raise buffalo grass. Here is everything you wanted about it.

How To Plant Buffalo Grass

Before answering the question of planting a new grass, it might be necessary where and when this grows best.

The buffalo kind has a luxurious feel and requires minimal quantities of water compared to Kentucky blue grass, but can be grown only in Central America.

It gets its name from the fact that the great plains of America was full of this grass and was continually trodden by buffalos and yet it survived for long time.

Why Buffalo Grass

If you are looking for a luxurious feel under your feet but you do not wish to care much for it and also require a lawn that requires least amount of water, the buffalo grass is the one to select. The requirement of top soil for buffalo grass is very less and just 3 to 4 inches of top soil will do as its roots do not go deep into the soil. The grass can be planted form seeds or sods (plugs)

If you are thinking of planting buffalo grass from sods, read the second part of this article entitled : How to Plant Buffalo Grass from Sods

Buffalo Grass From Seeds

Planting buffalo grass from seeds is a difficult job particularly when the moisture is absent in the air. While the grass once grown requires low quantity of water, it needs good care while planting. Particularly if you wish to grow the lawn with seeds, you have to take more care.

The soil should be loose and should have been tilled before you plants seeds. A rototiller is favorably employed while preparing the soil for buffalo grass.

Seed Treatment

Seeds need to be treated chemically and mechanically to ensure that they grow properly. Chemical treatment is required to ensure that the seed dormancy is reduced to minimum. The mechanical treatment consists of keeping the seeds under 5 to 10 degrees centigrade for about 6 or 8 weeks before planting.

Treated seeds have higher germination rates of 80% compared to 20% for untreated seeds. Planting treated seeds is more important when you plan planting during summer or spring. Treated seeds give immediate results.

The seed requirement is generally 2 to 4 pounds per 1000 squire feet. Success rate is more with broadcasting compared to drilling. The drilled plantation requires higher rate of 10 to 20 pounds per 1000 square feet.

When the seeds are planted during fall season, the seeds remain dormant until the next spring season and germinate only during the next spring. The seeds also require watering at regular interval (avoid too much watering) so that the seeds germinate properly and germinated seeds survive the weather conditions.

If you rally want success with your seed plantation, you would plant the seeds in April or may. The coming spring and summer season will have the perfect conditions for germination of seeds and growing of buffalo grass.