Seed Selection

[JeffersonT]

My old lawn was made up of Midnight II, Moonlight, Bedazzled Kentucky bluegrass with Celestial creeping red fescue in the shaded areas. I really like the Midnight, Moonlight and Celestial cultivars. I have now moved and am looking to renovate my new lawn.

I plan on using Midnight and Celestial. I would like to add Moonlight or Moonlight SLT but cannot locate the seeds. I noticed that several people on the forums have used Bewitched KBG. For those that have knowledge of Bewitched, will it compliment the Midnight in disease resistance and aesthetic? I am hoping for similar growth patterns and appearance between the two.

I live in Western PA (Zone 6a).

Thank you for any input!

[turf_toes]

If you want genetic diversity, select from multiple categories. Midnight is a compact midnight type. Bewitched is a compact type. You’ll need to select from at least one other type.

[JeffersonT]

turf_toes, I am possibly looking at over seeding with Blue Note (compact American type) if I end up with significant disease problems. I believe from reading the boards that you had a midnight II mono-stand in the past and it appears you have a bewitched mono-stand now. I have never seen Bewitched in person. Which grass do you prefer the appearance of? How do the colors compare? I appreciate any insight you may be able to give.

[turf_toes]

Bewitched is better for me. But it’s a different house, different soil and other conditions.

But if you are looking for genetic diversity, you shouldn’t be looking at a mono stand of any grass.

What’s great in my local growing conditions may not be so great for your conditions. NTEP should be your source of truth.

[Green]

I am possibly looking at over seeding with Blue Note (compact American type) if I end up with significant disease problems.

I use Bewitched as part of a mix, but if I were overseeding an existing mix, I think I'd go with Blue Note. Note, I have no personal experience with Blue Note; I'm going by NTEP ratings for color, blade width, disease tolerance, green-up, and overall rankings from Northeast test sites. I just think Blue Note would blend in better if repairing an existing lawn because it's not as dark (unless your lawn is already super dark, then Bewitched would mix better).

If you're not overseeding/patch seeding the existing lawn, then you can go with whatever you want, because you're starting over. I would try to keep the color rakings of any cultivars similar (learned that the hard way...should have gone with Blue Note or Rhapsody instead of America).

[andy10917]

I have changed my position about monostands in the past few years.

I've had three monostands now, and I used to believe that they were only for the very-experienced owner who was decisive when disease struck - it can rip right through a monostand practically at the speed of light.

With more dsiease-resistant cultivars, I've loosened my opinion. I think that less-experienced owners can have monostands IF (and only if) they are the type of person that isn't going to spend days polling for opinions about what is wrong, and instead takes the bull by the horns and takes responsibility for the outcome.

We had a member on ATY a couple of years ago that couldn't make decisions and asked for others to tell him what to do. He built a monostand, a sure-as-hell spent days going back-and-forth about what to do when disease hit. He lost a large percentage of his lawn.

Monostands are not for the faint-of-heart, but they certainly require commitment and personal commitment.

My son (SLYDER27 on this Forum) has a beautiful Bewitched monostand, but he is take-charge guy and committed. I like the Bewitched cultivar a great deal. But his backup plan has Dad's 45 years of experience to fall back on with a phone call and a 15-minute drive for me. Here it is at a young-age -- it has darkened a lot and will probably keep darkening for another two years.

[Green]

With all the talk of Bewitched, I want to discuss another option, in between the extremes of monostand on one hand, and blend of at least 3 different types on the other.

That option is a duostand.

Bewitched is pretty darn shade tolerant, quite disease tolerant, moderately to very dark green, and has a somewhat slow vertical growth rate. It's a Compact Type.

Mazama, which is new the last couple of years, has a lot of the same characteristics, but is a Compact America Type that also has Midnight Type DNA in it.

From what I've heard and seen in photos, Bewitched and Mazama go very well together as a duostand, and their colors and characters reinforce each other's strengths while providing just enough genetic diversity. If you have a touch of shade, this combo would likely totally rock.

[Iowa Jim]

I did a reno of bewitched,mazama and midnight last fall and they mix very well. The bewitched was a shade lighter but by this spring it has caught up to the other two. You can cover 3 different classes this way also. There is a new cultivar out called bluebank that is suppose to be even better than midnight but i have no experience with it. Also the mix does well in moderate shade as mazama is no.1 for shade and bewitched is no.2. I have places that only get about 3 hours of sun and there doing well. Be warned that if your starting over this would be a good mix but would probably to dark for a oversees of older grass types.

[JeffersonT]

I went over the PA NTEP trials, this board, and the internet. It seems that Bewitched and Midnight will blend well. Bewitched seems very disease resistant and looks like a very nice dark green grass in the pictures I have seen. I am shooting for a very dark green lawn at the request of my wife. Bewitched is dark and beautiful in the pictures that I have seen, but I know that Midnight is very dark in person and the NTEP has it as a darker grass than Bewitched. I am currently ruling out a monostand of Bewitched in the front yard in case it is not dark enough. I don't think a monostand of Midnight will do well throughout my entire front lawn. There is enough shade that it will likely need some help from another dark compact cultivar like Bewitched. Midnight seemed to do poorly under shaded conditions in my last yard. I am hesitant to add anymore cultivars unless a need arises. I suspect that my side and backyard will end up being Bewitched with Celestial creeping red fescue thrown in as needed.

My wife and I are getting frustrated with our current front lawn and I am getting inpatient to renovate. Ideally, I should do test plots of Midnight and Bewitched to determine how they will look. We will be making the decision to renovate this year or next year over the next couple of weeks. If we wait until next year I will do test plots.

Green, I think you are right. I suspect that Blue Note would be too light for my taste when blended with Bewitched and Midnight. I could not find data on Mazama in PA but saw a very nice Mazama lawn on youtube. The lawn was farther south though. I will keep looking into this.

Andy, I am not too worried about a monostand. I am pretty diligent and prepared to deal with catastrophic issues. Your son's lawn look great by the way!

I have been reading this board on and off for years and really value Andy's posts as well as Green and turf_toes'. this board has been extremely helpful. Thank you guys!!

[turf_toes]

Again, local conditions rule. But in my current yard, Bewitched is much darker than my old Midnight II monostand. Ymmv

[HoosierLawnGnome]

Honestly bewitched is the easiest KBG monostand in my area too and it looks fantastic. Cant beat its desease resistance and growth habit.

Its shade tolerance is better than some KBG, but it's. Ot going to thrive, it will just survive better than others. I dont think KBG does well in heavy shade at all, at least not on the north side of all my houses I've owned. It's always thinner there.