# Celebration vs Tiftuf



## SouthernTiftuf (Jan 14, 2022)

So let me start off by saying initially when I went down this rabbit hole I did not have celebration available and was deciding between Tiftuf and 419 and ultimately chose Tiftuf (hence my name on here haha). It was supposed to be laid tomorrow but due to the landscaper's skid steer being in the shop my reno is pushed back into March and I am back into the rabbit hole with my extra time. I was browsing TLF again and eventually found celebration sod available that is cheaper than Tiftuf and have had read conflicting studies on the two.

I have seen different opinions on their shade tolerance, traffic tolerance, drought tolerance, earlier green up/later dormancy with some saying Tiftuf is better and others saying celebration is better.

Some of the things I have found about both without much argument is:
Tiftuf scalps easier than celebration
Celebration is darker 
Celebration grows more horizontally vs tiftuff being more vertical

With all of this said my lawn is essentially full sun minus some areas that are around the house and fence and shaded during some of the day. I have a tru cut I want to mow with between .5-.75 inches and we have dogs so the traffic tolerance is my main concern. Is tiftuf worth the money at that point or is celebration a better route for us? Does anyone have any experience with their green ups because I have heard Tiftuf will stay green well into November here so I am interested if Celebration will be the same or close?

Can anyone with these lawns or who has seen them be able to confirm or deny any of this?

Look forward to everyone's opinions and thank you in advance.


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## Redtwin (Feb 9, 2019)

My personal opinion is Celebration is better than 419 and both are better than Tiftuf. I'm not impressed with Tiftuf in my friend's yard. It scalps way too easy and is not very responsive to PGR.


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## SouthernTiftuf (Jan 14, 2022)

Redtwin said:


> My personal opinion is Celebration is better than 419 and both are better than Tiftuf. I'm not impressed with Tiftuf in my friend's yard. It scalps way too easy and is not very responsive to PGR.


Interesting. I have heard of the scalping issue and am curious what's their HOC if you had to guess and is it with a reel mower? I think I'm leaning more into celebration at this point solely on the costs but don't want to skimp if the tiftuf will significantly help hold up to dog traffic.


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## Redtwin (Feb 9, 2019)

He mows with a JD220e at around .75". In the defense of Tiftuf, I'm pretty sure there are some cultural practice issues going on but from what I have seen, it is not worth the extra price for Tiftuf when I can have my 419 looking way better. The important thing is the care you give the turf, not the genetics. Now Celebration on the other hand... if the price was anywhere close I would have gone with that but it is not available in my area. Tiftuf is way overpriced for what you get.

There have been many times recently where I have seen someone post a photo of their BEAUTIFUL lawn and when I look to see what kind of grass it is, it turns out to be 419. That has never happened with Tiftuf. I just think it is overhyped.


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## anthonybilotta (Aug 11, 2018)

Coming from someone with tiftuf, I would go with celebration. Despite mowing every 2 days, PGR, and the whole gambit, I am always left wanting more out of my lawn. The lawn looks the best early in the season, but it just scalps too easily despite 3 years of leveling, PGR, and solid cultural practices. Also, tiftuf is much lighter in color than 419, even with scheduled iron applications. Over the past three years, I have had trouble nailing down a good dose of Tnex, the lawn just does not seem to respond as well as other cultivars of bermudagrass.

I will say one area where it does shine is it seems to hold its color better further into the fall and seems to maintain acceptable turf quality even when its not watered for extended periods of time.


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## ag_fishing (Feb 3, 2021)

I have celebration at .5" and it's a deep blue green color. I even scalped at .25" a week ago and still had a good amount of green. It spreads very very fast and it was still green til New Years before we actually had a decent cold front where temps were in the 20s overnight


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## Movingshrub (Jun 12, 2017)

anthonybilotta said:


> Coming from someone with tiftuf, I would go with celebration. Despite mowing every 2 days, PGR, and the whole gambit, I am always left wanting more out of my lawn. The lawn looks the best early in the season, but it just scalps too easily despite 3 years of leveling, PGR, and solid cultural practices. Also, tiftuf is much lighter in color than 419, even with scheduled iron applications. Over the past three years, I have had trouble nailing down a good dose of Tnex, the lawn just does not seem to respond as well as other cultivars of bermudagrass.
> 
> I will say one area where it does shine is it seems to hold its color better further into the fall and seems to maintain acceptable turf quality even when its not watered for extended periods of time.


Ditto on all of it.


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## Katodude (Apr 22, 2021)

Most of the golf courses down here have put Celebration down in the fairways. Both our courses have replaced the 419 in the fairway with Celebration and it looks way better. I am going to say they probably know better than me.


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## SouthernTiftuf (Jan 14, 2022)

anthonybilotta said:


> Coming from someone with tiftuf, I would go with celebration. Despite mowing every 2 days, PGR, and the whole gambit, I am always left wanting more out of my lawn. The lawn looks the best early in the season, but it just scalps too easily despite 3 years of leveling, PGR, and solid cultural practices. Also, tiftuf is much lighter in color than 419, even with scheduled iron applications. Over the past three years, I have had trouble nailing down a good dose of Tnex, the lawn just does not seem to respond as well as other cultivars of bermudagrass.
> 
> I will say one area where it does shine is it seems to hold its color better further into the fall and seems to maintain acceptable turf quality even when its not watered for extended periods of time.


Thank you a ton for the insight. The Celebration is about $1000 cheaper as well so that was where I was leaning but I didn't want to save $1,000 to just redo it next year if it wasn't good enough.


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## SouthernTiftuf (Jan 14, 2022)

ag_fishing said:


> I have celebration at .5" and it's a deep blue green color. I even scalped at .25" a week ago and still had a good amount of green. It spreads very very fast and it was still green til New Years before we actually had a decent cold front where temps were in the 20s overnight


So the cold tolerance is there it looks like! I wish there was celebration in my area I could see and feel to really set my mind on it because that is where I am leaning.


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## Herring (Sep 19, 2020)

When researching Celebration I learned it requires a lot of cultural practices, verticutting, aerating, and top dressing to look it's best. The video from LSU's Celebration on their football field talks about this.






For this reason it's said to be a great choice for sports fields but home lawns may not have the equipment and schedule for these tasks.

Celebration X is coming out in the future that supposedly addresses the problems with the older cultivar. But of course it does no good if it's not available yet. I'm right there with you going down the rabbit hole with all of these choices.


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## Redtwin (Feb 9, 2019)

If Celebration is cheaper that would be a no brainer to me. I think on one of the football field videos they talked about Celebration needing less input than their old 419 fields. I'll try to find it and post the link. It might have been that LSU video. That's a good one!

Edit: OK, it was this LSU video. They said 419 doesn't require the cultivation practices like the Celebration but the Celebration has less fertility requirements.


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## SouthernTiftuf (Jan 14, 2022)

Well it sounds like my TLF name is going to make less sense soon


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## CenlaLowell (Apr 21, 2017)

I got a question how do you remove the present Bermuda for your new cultivator?


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## SouthernTiftuf (Jan 14, 2022)

@CenlaLowell my lawn is currently centipede in the main areas and the back areas is a mix of common and weeds. The common is super thin and weak back there but the landscaper is going to glyphosate the yard a few weeks before and then use a sod cutter to get it all out as best as possible. Our yard has lots of dirt from the dogs and the centipede though already.


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## hurricanewolf (Apr 22, 2020)

The replies here are interesting. Looking at NTEP trials, it appears to me the TifTuf out performed Celebration. I planted a couple pieces of each last year and I kinda agree with those results. Tiftuf stayed green longer in the fall and greened up a couple weeks earlier in the spring. Additionally, the Tiftuf felt much better to walk on barefoot.

After the scalp I did this week, its obvious the Celebration would need a verticut while the Tiftuf is probably good with just a scalp. Of course your results my vary. My yard is full sun, very sandy soil and mowed at 1-2 inches with a rotary.


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## Redtwin (Feb 9, 2019)

Just my opinion: It might stay green later or green up earlier but that's all it has going for it. The limited response to treatment is what turns me off of it. @hurricanewolf's results do match what the LSU video showed in regards to Celebration needing a little more cultivation practices but it would be worth it to me not dealing with the lack of response to PGR and scalping.


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## CenlaLowell (Apr 21, 2017)

Redtwin said:


> Just my opinion: It might stay green later or green up earlier but that's all it has going for it. The limited response to treatment is what turns me off of it. @hurricanewolf's results do match what the LSU video showed in regards to Celebration needing a little more cultivation practices but it would be worth it to me not dealing with the lack of response to PGR and scalping.


When you say scalping do you mean cutting into brown? Because if celebration stops this it would be great news.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

CenlaLowell said:


> Redtwin said:
> 
> 
> > Just my opinion: It might stay green later or green up earlier but that's all it has going for it. The limited response to treatment is what turns me off of it. @hurricanewolf's results do match what the LSU video showed in regards to Celebration needing a little more cultivation practices but it would be worth it to me not dealing with the lack of response to PGR and scalping.
> ...


I've only had celebration in a small area (about 500^ ft.) but having installed it on labor day, I never once mowed it. It seems to stay very low, and like was noted in the video, seems to need verticutting. Again, grain of salt here bc I haven't had a full season with it, but overall it behaves very differently than the common Bermuda I have in the side yard. I sodded another few thousand ft of it, so we'll see how it goes this year.


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## CenlaLowell (Apr 21, 2017)

Dono1183 said:


> CenlaLowell said:
> 
> 
> > Redtwin said:
> ...


verticutting ah man that's something extra I would like to avoid for a lawn my size.


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## Redtwin (Feb 9, 2019)

CenlaLowell said:


> Redtwin said:
> 
> 
> > Just my opinion: It might stay green later or green up earlier but that's all it has going for it. The limited response to treatment is what turns me off of it. @hurricanewolf's results do match what the LSU video showed in regards to Celebration needing a little more cultivation practices but it would be worth it to me not dealing with the lack of response to PGR and scalping.
> ...


I mean it doesn't take much growth to push into the brown. I don't think it would be a big deal if you could control it with PGR. My 419 will get like this as well but it responds well to T-Nex so I can control it. Maybe if you just treated TifTuf at common bermuda levels it might work but then you are pushing the overregulation risk.


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## FATC1TY (Jul 12, 2017)

I rarely have issues with pgr response from TifTuf. Maybe I'm just lucky?

I start small and ramp up after first month of application. Yes it'll scalp easier than others but, once it's trained well, it's just fine, I don't see much difference in 419, other than it's a touch lighter in color, and it doesn't freak out when it goes a long time without water. Green early and later, heck my front yard barely went dormant for but maybe 2-3 weeks and even then it wasn't completely asleep.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

CenlaLowell said:


> Dono1183 said:
> 
> 
> > CenlaLowell said:
> ...


Yeah I've followed your journal, you have a nice sized yard. I don't blame you for that one!


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## rjw0283 (May 11, 2020)

I put some celebration in a few spots in my yard... it definitely needs verticutting, It spreads fiercely by runners... I am talking a few feet long in areas. The TIF419 does not do that, neither does whatever variant I have growing in the front. I would not do my entire yard with Celebration. I like the unknown variant I have growing in the front better. (I think it's a combo of some tif419 and a really nice common) The good thing about celebration is that man it spreads! IF you got a bare area of sand or dirt and it gets plenty of sunlight... it's creeping over it and covering it all.


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## Redtwin (Feb 9, 2019)

Tifway 419 spreads very aggressively too if it gets plenty of sun, food, and water.


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## DuncanMcDonuts (May 5, 2019)

I can't speak much on Celebration but as far as Tifway 419 vs TifTuf goes, my TifTuf grows better in shade than Tifway 419, greens longer, and shows more drought tolerance. I haven't noticed any difference in scalping and color is pretty similar to me.

I do like the darker green of Celebration.


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## CenlaLowell (Apr 21, 2017)

I'm wondering how is latitude 36 for verticutting? Do you need to do it?


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## kem5882 (Apr 30, 2020)

What is everyone's thoughts on Tahoma 31 vs these two? It seems to tout itself as superior to TufTuf. I'm about to re-sod my backyard. Have been leaning TifTuf because of availability near me but am definitely considering all options.


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## CenlaLowell (Apr 21, 2017)

kem5882 said:


> What is everyone's thoughts on Tahoma 31 vs these two? It seems to tout itself as superior to TufTuf. I'm about to re-sod my backyard. Have been leaning TifTuf because of availability near me but am definitely considering all options.


It's beautiful for sure. The lawn tools have it watch there videos for reference


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## Mightyquinn (Jan 31, 2017)

If you plan to reel mow, I would go with the Tahoma 31 or Celebration.


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## SouthernTiftuf (Jan 14, 2022)

I've heard tahoma 31 is amazing from what I've read and also seen from the lawn tools. I found 1 place that had it around here and it was very expensive compared to other bermudas


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## TigerKnight (Apr 13, 2019)

I put in Celebration last September. Even after new install, it was darker green than my 419 neighbors, stayed greener longer into Fall (still had some green even after some snow), and is greening up faster right now.

It does seem to like to be cut low and stays low from the few months I have had it.

Here it is on Oct 11. (exactly 4 weeks after install). No nitrogen had been applied.

Picture was taken later in the day - but this area gets full sun 8+ hours.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

TigerKnight said:


> I put in Celebration last September. Even after new install, it was darker green than my 419 neighbors, stayed greener longer into Fall (still had some green even after some snow), and is greening up faster right now.
> 
> It does seem to like to be cut low and stays low from the few months I have had it.
> 
> ...


Your yard looks great!


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## TigerKnight (Apr 13, 2019)

Dono1183 said:


> Your yard looks great!


Thanks! I am ready for it to look like this again as temps are slowly increasing.


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## Bunnysarefat (May 4, 2017)

I actually have tiftuf and celebration in my yard by happenstance. I have about 8k tiftuf which is most of my backyard, but then the side of my house I renovated and scalped down to dirt to lay down 1 more pallet of tiftuf. I laid it down in October of 2019, and so it looked weird, and then went dormant.

When it greened up it was obvious to me as a Lawn Forum OG that *this was not tiftuf, this was celebration.*





The sod supplier promptly gave me a refund for what I paid, but it's sort of like your worst nightmare as a lawn enthusiast. I still have not had time to get all the grass on the same page. In fact, I was so beaten that I installed a metal sheet to serve as a subsurface divider between the two grass types that sits about 1cm below the surface. This was less work than redoing the whole area, and it has helped the grasses to more or less stay in their areas and not mix too much.



Now let me say that I love tiftuf overall. It's a very interesting grass with interesting properties.



Tiftuf looks and feels great, but it's biggest problem is the seed head development, which can be very excessive. This is, of course mitigated by PGR, but as many have alluded to, it doesn't react great to PGR. It works, but i've still not been able to dial in the dose perfectly. If I get good suppression, I find the grass looks very dull. With no PGR the grass always looks strong and vigorous. But then you will get seed heads eventually, who knows for how long.

Green up, I've found it very similar. I will def say that staying green into the cold, edge to tiftuf. I am not seeing any photos to back this up but this is my anecdotal experience. So even if you give an edge on green up to celebration, staying green into winter has been tiftuf.

What I like about tiftuf is it's ability to recover from damage (if not under PGR) I really found this remarkable. I also like how soft it is, when it first came out this was not really talked about but it's really true. Water savings is good, but i think it's like $8 to water the lawn at .5 inches so, it's never really been a care, just a "just in case" thing.

The main difference is color. These are like the worst two grasses to have bumped up next to each other. My soil is iron deficient, and I actually prefer the look of tiftuf supplemented with iron. But I'm red green color blind so my opinion isn't worth much.

Celebration is also just so damn aggressive. I'm getting to the point where removing the previous year's growth is laborious, and celebration grows so thick it should be illegal. It's stupid thick, not even helpful thick.

Overall celebration is a totally different experience.

My big hot take is this -- if you want the lawn for looks alone, go celebration. If you want the lawn for play, go tiftuf. Obviously we are talking on the margins here. Both are great grass types.


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## Halldylan (Aug 9, 2021)

I've got both celebration and latitude 36 in my backyard, I was supposed to get all latitude 36 but my sod supplier screwed my over so I have one small patch of latitude 36. I prefer the latitude 36 over the celebration mainly because of the feel when barefoot. As everyone else has said celebration is super aggressive with its runners and can be a bit stiff to walk on. The color of celebration is definitely the best you can get though. It's super resilient and I've got two bigger dogs who put it through the ringer all summer. I've got no say for tifftuff though. 
Latitude 36 on the left and celebration on the right.


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## Halldylan (Aug 9, 2021)

Closeup of the same comparison as above


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## Dlmartin1984 (Jun 7, 2021)

Halldylan said:


> I've got both celebration and latitude 36 in my backyard, I was supposed to get all latitude 36 but my sod supplier screwed my over so I have one small patch of latitude 36. I prefer the latitude 36 over the celebration mainly because of the feel when barefoot. As everyone else has said celebration is super aggressive with its runners and can be a bit stiff to walk on. The color of celebration is definitely the best you can get though. It's super resilient and I've got two bigger dogs who put it through the ringer all summer. I've got no say for tifftuff though.
> Latitude 36 on the left and celebration on the right.


2nd the Latitude 36 feeling. I had multiple people mention things about the softness. It's really incredible. Super dense too.


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## SouthernTiftuf (Jan 14, 2022)

Thank you a ton to everyone for their photos/thoughts. It has really helped being able to see them side by side vs other cultivators


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