Buffalo Grass In Winter Hibernation Mode

"Prestige" buffalo grass in January 2013, approximately 5-months after planting in 2012. I scattered some mulch around the plugs closest to the camera to try to keep down weeds. The majority of the plugs, especially those furthest from the camera, just have bare ground between them.

So last August, as some of y'all may remember, I took the plunge and planted some buffalo grass.

I had three primary reasons for wanting to cultivate a buffalo grass patch:

1) Buffalo grass is supposed to be very tough and able to tolerate heat and drought. This is important because summers can be very hot (90-100+ Fahrenheit) in Tennessee for months at a time -- sometimes without any rain for weeks. I'd like to cut down on my supplemental irrigation, so finding plants that can survive a drought is key.

2) Buffalo grass is supposed to be low-growing. Especially the varieties that are sold for lawn use - like the Prestige variety I bought - are only supposed to get 4-6 inches tall over an entire season. That means you could theoretically not mow your lawn at all, or maybe just once or twice per year.

3) Buffalo grass is native to North America (although I think it is more native to Western parts of the continent).

4) Buffalo grass requires far less nitrogen fertilizer (1-2 lbs per 1000 square feet) versus conventional lawns (e.g. Bluegrass at 3-5 lbs per 1000 square feet). I'm always looking for ways to reduce external inputs such as fertilizer for more eco-friendly (and wallet-friendly) landscaping.


So, how did the buffalo grass planting turn out? I posted a 2nd day update, but this is my first time revisiting the buffalo grass patch since then on this blog.

To be honest, it's not particularly a pretty sight at the moment. As I'd expected, the buffalo grass went into hibernation mode ('dormancy' is the technical term, I believe) once nighttime temperatures started dipping below freezing in late October and early November.

One advantage of the buffalo grass plugs not growing together yet is that there was space for some self-sown lettuce seedlings to emerge. I believe this is Merveille de Quatre Saisons. The lettuce never got all that big, but I did pick and eat the baby lettuce one night when temperatures were forecast to drop into the teens, which I thought might damage the tender lettuce leaves.

The winter color is not unattractive - I like to think of it as 'tan' or 'golden'. I less charitable soul would probably call it 'brown'. Beauty continues to be in the eye of the beholder.

The main lesson I think I can pass on from my experiences thus far would be this: If you live in a climate where temperatures drop below freezing in winter, it doesn't really make sense to plant buffalo grass in late summer.

Because while I think all the plugs survived being transplanted into an August heatwave, I also think it took them a while to settle in and get rooted. Plus they required frequent watering around the transplant time.

It probably would have been smarter to plant the plugs around May. In a good year, we're still getting nice spring rains in May, so the buffalo grass plugs probably wouldn't need much supplemental irrigation. And then they would have all summer to knit together by growing into each other along stolons.

A dormant buffalo grass plug that started to send out a stolon to the left. I like the way that the dormant buffalo grass goes all curly or frizzled.

It's hard to tell from the picture, but some of the plugs did start to send out runners and interlace with one another, but they didn't have a chance to complete that process before the weather got cold and the new growth shut down for the winter.

And because they had not yet knit together, that left plenty of space for weeds to develop. (I picked most of those weeds out by hand, which wasn't too hard in most cases, although I had to be careful not to damage buffalo grass roots.

On the bright side, the stories about buffalo grass being a low-growing grass definitely seem to be true. When the grass did start growing, it focused its energies on lateral growth rather than vertical growth. So I can definitely see this being a grass that needs hardly any mowing to keep it at a reasonable height for a lawn.

So that's the story right now.

One more dormant buffalo grass plug. This one expanded a bit more than some of the others, but it has a lot more expanding to do in the spring and summer to connect with its neighboring plugs.

My hope is the buffalo grass will start greening up in late March or early April, once the temperatures start staying above freezing at night and daytime temps are reliably in the 60s or higher. (It's actually around 70 Fahrenheit today, but that's not going to last. We'll be going back to highs in the 30s-40s range and lows in the 20s by the end of the week.

Presuming the grass is still alive and in good shape, I will post another update when it starts greening and then hopefully be able to post additional updates in the summer if it does start forming a solid patch of grass.

Based on my experience thus far, I don't feel I know enough yet to say whether or not buffalo grass would make a good alternative to other lawngrasses in the Southeast. I can say that if I were to do it over again, I would try to get an earlier start planting the buffalo grass (by June at the latest) to give them a whole summer to try to grow together and form a solid patch of turf.

Do you have any questions on my buffalo grass trial experiment so far? Praise, criticism, suggestions and cheerful encouragement are all welcome in the comments section below!

Buffalo Grass Trial - Day #2

Buffalo grass plugs newly installed, Day #2, August 23, 2012

Yesterday, my mail order of Prestige buffalograss arrived from Todd Valley Farms.

(Yes, this is the same Todd Valley Farms referenced in my interview with Wayne Thorson about the virtues of buffalograss. In case you're wondering, I did not get any perks or discounts from Wayne or Todd Valley Farms in exchange for the interview. You can read the Trust section of this website if you'd like to learn more about my policies and promises on editorial integrity. I bought my buffalo grass fair and square in a 95-plug tray for $48 plus $14 shipping and handling. I looked around and investigated buying the buffalo grass through other mail order outlets, but the ones I investigated seemed to basically just be distributors for Todd Valley Farms, so I just decided to buy from the source.)

I have to admit that I was very excited to open the box and see the thick carpet of Prestige buffalograss therein. Despite three days in transit in mid-80s to low-90s weather, the plugs looked healthy, strong and green. Yes, the grass is a softer, greyer color than fescue or bluegrass, but it was incredibly soft and all the blades were nicely interconnected in a way that seemed like it would do a good job of excluding weeds.

In fact, the stolens on the buffalograss were so interwoven that it was impossible to pull the plugs apart without cutting them. My wife graciously volunteered for this task while I set to work trying to dig holes in the rock-hard clay that we call soil.

(I'm sorry I didn't take a photo of the buffalograss looking so pretty in its tray. I was eager to get the plugs untangled and planted. As it was, the job took us ~3 hours and we only finished around sunset. It would have taken far longer without the help of my generous and kind wife!) 

Incidentally, this buffalograss test patch was installed where we previously had our raised garden bed. I disassembled the bed a few days ago, distributing some of the soil therein throughout the landscaped beds and raking the remaining soil to the point where it looked relatively smooth with a nice slight grade away from the house and patio.

Anyway, back to the digging. It was hard work, chopping at the soil with a small shovel. If I were planting more than one tray (and even if I were doing one tray again), I'd certainly consider buying some sort of auger attachment for my drill to make the work go faster and easier. Or I might try the approach my wife suggested, which would be to use a big shovel to chop up the top layer of dirt throughout the whole planting area and then plant all the plugs into that loosened soil. Or maybe it would have been better to use a tiller? I'm not sure yet and confess that I still have a lot to learn about soil!

Prestige buffalograss plugs close up after installation

In any case, we watered down the area, watered down the plugs themselves and chopped out holes in the soil. I didn't worry too much about placing the plugs at exact distances from each other, but I did try to stagger the rows as recommended in the planting instructions. (By 'stagger the rows', I mean that I wanted the post-planting area to have a checkerboard pattern.)

The planting and care instructions sent by Todd Valley Farms are rather chemical dependent. They recommend soaking the plugs with Miracle Gro®or a similar sod/seed starter fertilizer and using chemical herbicides to suppress weeds.

As an organic gardener, I basically ignored those instructions. Instead I scattered some chicken manure and earthworm castings into each of the holes and plan to spray some organic liquid fertilizer in a few weeks. As far as I can tell, the fertilizers that are recommended (every 30 days according to the planting instructions) are not absolutely essential - after all, no one was spraying buffalograss with fertilizer when it was the dominant grass on the Great Plains! - but rather just to encourage the buffalograss to fill in its area before weeds pop up to compete. Since I'm not using an herbicide - some of which like 2-4D can apparently harm the buffalograss itself - I'll need to just be vigilant about weeds and try to pull them before they get established. Since this is a compact area (probably not more than 50-60 square feet), I'm hoping I can deter the weeds until the buffalograss fills in and gets strong enough to screen them out on its own.

Update - Just called Todd Valley Farms and was told that using organic fertilizer is fine, just to try to use one that supports root growth - i.e. one that has more P and K, versus N that would encourage top growth, which would be counterproductive without the roots to support that growth.

An overhead shot of the buffalograss plugs. The slightly darker patch of soil in the middle of the photo is where I emptied out the last of the earthworm castings. I wish all my soil was that dark and rich. Yes, I have Soil Envy!

So that's where things stand for now. The instructions emphasize keeping the plugs wet for two weeks, so I soaked the area thoroughly right after planting and again this morning. I spoke with Todd Farms to ask exactly what this meant in terms of how often to water the plugs, but was told that it was impossible to give a hard answer since the watering frequency would depend on temperature, soil, etc. Basically I was told that I should keep the area 'wet' for two weeks (wet meaning you wouldn't want to walk on it) and then 'moist' for another two weeks (moist meaning you could potentially walk there). I was also given the reassuring news that the plugs are a bit less sensitive to drying out than the sod.

And while some buffalograss buyers have reported problems with their grass turning brown, again as I understand it that is more of a problem with buffalograss sod and/or with spring plantings where the grass is taken out of a warm greenhouse and plopped into a colder environment. Since it's going to be in the low 90s today and for the next couple of days, I don't think I have to worry about cold temperature shocks with the buffalograss!

Prestige buffalograss plugs and one zinnia, one of a couple plants that I didn't have the heart to remove when I was preparing the buffalograss bed

So, I'm very excited to be giving this a try! Hopefully temps will cool off in a week or so (that's the long range forecast) and we'll get some rain which will cut down on the amount of watering I need to do, but for now I'm willing to do some intensive short-term watering for the future promise of less watering down the road. As the "General Care Guidelines After Establishment" in the planting instructions state:

"You should not need to water your buffalograss except in times of drought. If this occurs, deep water (1 to 2 inches) once per month. This will keep your lawn looking lush. Adjustments to this may need to be made due to soil conditions and/or local climates. If you choose not to water, this will not harm the grass (my emphasis) but you may notice a slight browning of the blade tips. Buffalograss will go into dormancy in extreme droughts."

All of this sounds awesome to me. The promise of a lawn - or at least a patch of a lawn - that needs hardly any supplemental water and grows slowly to a maximum height of 4-6 inches tall? That is the dream I am pursuing with this buffalograss trial.

Will the buffalo grass ever knit together into a green carpet? Or will it remain as a patchwork of isolated clumps? Find out (eventually) with free email updates.