8/9/2012 7:08 PM
I haven't grown all the varieties discussed, nor am I going to claim to be an expert. I think one other person mentioned it, but I've always been told when selecting a grass of a couple things.
1) how aggressive do you want it to be and how will that affect your ability to maintain it financially?
2) WHo are you trying to be and who is your clientel? Are you striving for lightening speed, consistancy, what's the focus of your selection going to be.
3) Are you knowledgeable enough about the varieties you are narrowing down to maintain them as they are meant to be and are they fit for your climate? One professor in college always told me to go to the courses closest to you and see what they've got, if it works there it might work for you. And you might get a feeling of maintenance costs, disease pressure, traffic resistance, etc. NTEP trials are great, but can you re-create a setting like that. We need to think about the "human" factor as much as machine reproduction.
To throw in my cheap 2 cents: south western ND, soil pH up in the mid 7's, water source pH even worse with a ton of sodium, carbonates, and bicarbonates, high in iron, etc. Climate here is quite dry to nearly arid. Minimal rain fall, sometimes very exposed winters. We use seaside II bent. I think it's weak in recovery when damaged or coming out of dormancy, but is okay with traffic if you have enough area to move it around, doesn't need a ton of babying otherwise if you have a solid program for it, looks like hell when it migrates away from the green, but overall, is working just fine because we maintain for the environment here.