# TTTF Viable?



## Bug pumper (Jul 2, 2018)

First thread here and just let me say this forum has been a wealth of information for me as I renovated my back lawn in 2017. I've been lurking for a while but keeping quiet as not much help to pitch in. My back lawn is coming along nicely maintained at 2" with my rotary.

I'm getting ready for the front reno and I've kind of got my heart set on a tall fescue lawn. I just want what most of us want which is dark green grass that stripes well. I live outside of Vancouver Canada (think Seattle Washington weather wise) There is issues with Chafer Beetle in neighboring cities and contractors are promoting tall fescue because the roots are more resistant to the grubs.

I'm almost ready to pull the trigger on Seed superstore SS1000 blend and/or SS1002 blend. I have a Jap maple in the middle of my yard that shades about 200sq/ft for most of the day. Can anyone comment on how these 2 mixes blend together? Or photos of a stand of ss1002? Weather doesn't get very cold here compared to rest of Canada but it's very wet fall through early spring.


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## grasscorrection (May 2, 2019)

According to SS the 1002 is what you need. SS1000 doesn't mention anything about Shade. Maybe stick with the SS1002?

"SS1002 is a Sod Quality 4-way blend of tall fescue varieties that have outstanding turfgrass quality in shaded growing conditions.

SS1002 contains Rowdy, Valkyrie LS, Titanum 2LS, and GTO tall fescue.

If you are growing a tall fescue lawn and part of your lawn gets less than 4 hours of direct sun a day we recommend planting SS1002 tall fescue shade blend in the shade and SS1000 Tall Fescue blend in the sun.."

So if you have a strip that gets constant sun, like between a sidewalk and street, then seed with just SS1000 there. I'd go with SS1002 with most of the yard. There are 4 different seed types in there. Trust it.

Get some Tenacity while tilling and throwing down compost/organic material.


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## DTTG13 (Apr 14, 2018)

I'm around an hour down the number 1 from you. I've thought about overseeding my back lawn with tall fescue, even bought the seed, but now thinking about going a different route. If you go to ntep and look up results by state, pick Washington state, then Puyallup, then select tall fescue. It's the closest climate to ours and the results don't look promising. Look at percent cover and also poa annua. It looks like 4 years after planting you'll be lucky to have half tall fescue left and the other half taken over by poa annua or some other grassy weed. Not to mention the quality ratings are relatively low.

If you have your heart set on tall fescue, you should check out the Fred Meyer in Bellingham, WA. Their private label "Natures Own" brand of grass seed and look for the one that has "drought defy" on the label. They will be Mountain View Seed varieties. The bag I bought had Raptor III, Supersonic, Firecracker SLS & Titanium LS. Although be aware it also contains around 10% Stellar PRG, 0.01 weed seed & 0.1 crop seed. Around $20 USD for 8 pounds. Look through the bags as the varieties change all the time.


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## Bug pumper (Jul 2, 2018)

DTTG13 said:


> I'm around an hour down the number 1 from you. I've thought about overseeding my back lawn with tall fescue, even bought the seed, but now thinking about going a different route. If you go to ntep and look up results by state, pick Washington state, then Puyallup, then select tall fescue. It's the closest climate to ours and the results don't look promising. Look at percent cover and also poa annua. It looks like 4 years after planting you'll be lucky to have half tall fescue left and the other half taken over by poa annua or some other grassy weed. Not to mention the quality ratings are relatively low.
> 
> If you have your heart set on tall fescue, you should check out the Fred Meyer in Bellingham, WA. Their private label "Natures Own" brand of grass seed and look for the one that has "drought defy" on the label. They will be Mountain View Seed varieties. The bag I bought had Raptor III, Supersonic, Firecracker SLS & Titanium LS. Although be aware it also contains around 10% Stellar PRG, 0.01 weed seed & 0.1 crop seed. Around $20 USD for 8 pounds. Look through the bags as the varieties change all the time.


Thanks for the heads up. I wonder what it is that the fescue doesn't like up here? 
I was under the impression that with a tall fescue lawn you pretty much need to overseed every year anyways? I'm happy with my PRG KBG back lawn but just wanted something very dark green to have in the front which is why I'm attracted to the fescue.


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## cfinden (Aug 7, 2018)

@Oregonseed is a seed expert on this forum that recommended going 1 cultivar of TTTF rather than a mix. No idea if it's viable in the Vancouver area, but maybe he can provide some advice.

I do have mostly TTTF in my front yard which is quite shady, but we don't get even close to the humidity you have in Langley.


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## quattljl (Aug 8, 2018)

What is the predominant turf type in your area? Is it common to see fescue lawns where you live? Wet and ultra shady don't seem to be a good recipe for TTTF success. I think it will depend just _how_ wet and _how_ shady your lawn is.

I know SSS is the "popular" choice for getting seed but man oh man are they expensive. Maybe being in Canada limits your options some but I would encourage you to look around at other seed suppliers if possible. I have nothing against SSS(except for their prices) so I'm not trying to bash. I just don't want people to think they're the only game in town for quality grass seed.


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## Oregonseed (May 22, 2019)

I live near Salem and love my 100% tttf. Front yard has a large tree that covers probably 50% of the yard majority of the day, no issues. I only used one variety to keep things homogeneous, blends are a silly idea to me.


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## Bug pumper (Jul 2, 2018)

@Oregonseed 
I haven't had a chance to go through your Q&A thread yet but I plan to. 
What type of fescue is your monostand?
Spring seems to be the popular seeding time up here, and I'm ok overseeding to keep up with die off. I'm already doing that with my PRG in the back yard in some spots that are full shade in the winter


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## DTTG13 (Apr 14, 2018)

Not sure if you had the chance to check out NTEP yet, but have a look at the link below.

https://www.ntep.org/data/tf06/tf06_12-9/tf0612t20.txt

Living ground cover. WA3 is Puyallup, WA.

Part of the reason I changed my mind on Tall fescue here in the PNW was the constant need for overseeding. Like you mentioned spring is the time to plant here and optimum planting time is probably going to be the same time lawns look the best they're going to all year. So instead of enjoying a lush green lawn, it's brown peat moss and the constant watering for germination.

Just curious as to why you have your heart set on tall fescue over perennial rye besides drought tolerance?

Also, Have you looked into alternatives such as tetraploid perennial ryegrasses? They are supposed to have better drought tolerance than diploid varieties, be very dark green in color and have a slightly wider grass blade.


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## Bug pumper (Jul 2, 2018)

@DTTG13 
My concern with PRG is that small spot the maple tree shades is right up on the street meaning it will be the first thing everyone sees. From my experience in my back yard PRG is a real struggle in some spots. 
I've never heard of the tetraploid grasses I'll have to look tonight. 
The only reason I had my heart set on Tall fescue is I'm looking for darkest green grass I can get and stripe it. Also I have a super bumpy front lawn so I have to mow tall.


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## FuzzeWuzze (Aug 25, 2017)

Bug pumper said:


> @DTTG13
> My concern with PRG is that small spot the maple tree shades is right up on the street meaning it will be the first thing everyone sees. From my experience in my back yard PRG is a real struggle in some spots.
> I've never heard of the tetraploid grasses I'll have to look tonight.
> The only reason I had my heart set on Tall fescue is I'm looking for darkest green grass I can get and stripe it.


PRG is probably the best striping grass out there because of its glossy back side. As reference my signature icon is 80/20 prg and kbg and super dark all year out here. I'm not saying tttf isn't good, but you can find varieties of prg tttf or kbg with 7+ ntep color scores easily


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## DTTG13 (Apr 14, 2018)

I know I'm sounding like a broken record but I would really spend some time on the NTEP site looking over results of different grasses in our area.

Like FuzzeWuzze wrote the darkest perennial rye are just as dark, if not darker, than the darkest tttf. I am a very dark grass junkie myself. My front lawn is Tee Lee, Private, PNW, Frontier, Singular and I just overseeded this spring with Double Time GLS. All very dark varieties.

Sorry if it sounds like I'm trying to change your mind on tttf. There are a lot of absolutely beautiful tttf lawns on here so I can understand why you'd like to give it a try. Perhaps the newer tttf varieties will perform better in our area.


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## Bug pumper (Jul 2, 2018)

@DTTG13

Not at all, I came here looking for advise. I'll have a look at NTEP but I'm on rotation at work right now and don't have more then a few minutes here and there for a couple more days. 
Where did you source your seed from? Did you have any problems at the border?


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