# Palmetto vs. Floratam race...place your bets!



## LawnRat (Mar 22, 2019)

In the left corner wearing 1/8" pale green trunks we have the challenger from Daytona. In the right corner is the reigning heavyweight champ from Fl/Tx wearing 1/4" purple trunks. The referee for today's match is a stainless 15" ruler.

Which one makes it to the finish line first?

Both runners are coming from established grass. If this was full sun I know the floratm would win easily, then send out side runners to choke out it's opponent. But this is under an eve on the north side of the house in my dog pen which gets zero sun and is sheltered from the rain. The only fert they will see is dog pee.

My guess is the champ wins in about 10 days with the wimpy palmetto following 7 days behind.

Will update pics every few days. Place your bets!


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## Durso81 (Apr 10, 2018)

I don't know about floratam but I know how fast my palmetto grows so I'm going with palmetto.


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## LawnRat (Mar 22, 2019)

Day 12 update. It's been pretty slow going but I guess that's to be expected in 100% shade, no fert and the almost daily dog pee sprinkle.

I don't know why they even sell Palmetto, at least in my climate. They market it as the miracle grass, evergreen, most shade tolerant, disease and drought resistant...blah blah blah. Hogwash. I have yet to find one instance where palmetto has an advantage over Floratam. I swear they push palmetto because they know it will die often and need to be replaced with more sod. Job security for the sod farmers and distributors (I'm looking at you Harmony, Home Depot, Lowes).

So far there's 10 inches of lateral growth on the Floratam and 7 inches on the palmetto. But it's not even near that close because the Floratam looks healthier and is already pushing side shoots.


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## TN Hawkeye (May 7, 2018)

LawnRat said:


> Day 12 update. It's been pretty slow going but I guess that's to be expected in 100% shade, no fert and the almost daily dog pee sprinkle.
> 
> I don't know why they even sell Palmetto, at least in my climate. They market it as the miracle grass, evergreen, most shade tolerant, disease and drought resistant...blah blah blah. Hogwash. I have yet to find one instance where palmetto has an advantage over Floratam. I swear they push palmetto because they know it will die often and need to be replaced with more sod. Job security for the sod farmers and distributors (I'm looking at you Harmony, Home Depot, Lowes).
> 
> So far there's 10 inches of lateral growth on the Floratam and 7 inches on the palmetto. But it's not even near that close because the Floratam looks healthier and is already pushing side shoots.


That's impressive growth from the Floratam. Almost an inch a day. Looks so much better too. I don't know a lot about St. Augustine grass. We had it growing up in Florida but I didn't really do much except mow it. Is the Floratam like a next generation version? Kind of like Tifway or Tiftuf Bermuda.


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## LawnRat (Mar 22, 2019)

TN Hawkeye said:


> ...Is the Floratam like a next generation version? Kind of like Tifway or Tiftuf Bermuda...


No, floratam was designed in 1972 in a collaboration with the University of Florida and Texas A&M. It was, at the time, resistant to many types of diseases and bugs...but over the years has become less so. Palmetto was discovered in the 1990's I think, and was supposed to be more cold hardy, which it probably is, and more shade tolerant, which I just don't see. It certainly isn't more disease resistant.

The "next generation" version is probably Scotts Provista, which is glyphosate tolerant! Time will tell how it holds up, but I'd love to be able to blanket spray gly, only if absolutely needed of course.


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## LawnRat (Mar 22, 2019)

I'm calling this race over on day 21. The Floratam is still growing but seems to be putting most of its energy into side shoots now, which is good. The palmetto did what palmetto does best, die. Not sure if it was from dog pee, lack of sun, water, fert or from disease, but they both had the same conditions.


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