[j4c11]

Since this is my first year with KBG, decided to to a few test. Pulled a 5" plug of grass and potted it in a 8" plastic pot. This is one of the 4 cultivars in the Turf Blue HGT blend from Barenbrug, but I don't know exactly which one it is. All I know is it's the one that is thriving in my yard. Grass is located in Greensboro NC.

Test 1: Recovery from dormancy.
I'm going to let it go on rain only, which will more than likely not be enough and it will go dormant. I will provide it with 0.5" of water every 2 weeks if Mother Nature doesn't. We will watch for recovery in the fall.

Test 2: Spreading
If test 1 completes successfully, I will fertilize and trim the bluegrass same as the lawn to see how fast it fills the entire pot. Current surface area5" diameter):~20 square inches. Target surface area(8" diameter): ~50 square inches. Thus, it would be a 2.5 time increase in surface area.

Test 3: Root Depth
Once test 2 is complete, probably next spring, I will stop cutting it and allow it to grow as long as it wants. After a few months, we will check for maximum root depth in the pot.



Ready, set, go!

 

[Budstl]

Can't wait to see your results. How's your lawn doing so far?

 

[j4c11]

So far so good, almost no turf loss but I got cocky around this time last year and got my *** kicked in August. So we'll see.

 

[j4c11]

Based on reading another thread I thought I'd update this project. The grass did not go dormant during the month of August, even though it received no irrigation. There was thinning, but a lot of it was still there.

September 2nd


During the month of September, we did not get any rain and the bluegrass went completely dormant, with only a couple of blades of grass remaining green in the center. Unfortunately, I do not have a picture of that. As of September 24th, the pot was nearly completely brown.

As the weather cooled off, the bluegrass recovered, partially. It is still only getting by on rain water. Here it is as of last week:

November 15th


A couple of conclusions to be drawn thus far. First, the bluegrass exhibited excellent drought tolerance. Without any irrigation, it stayed mostly green through mid-September, on not a whole lot of rain water. There is some spreading towards the edges of the pot where you can see plants that weren't there before , and it's continuing to spread. While the bluegrass made a recovery from dormancy it was not complete, about 30% of it made it back. I've had better results in a non-irrigated portion of my lawn where about 60% of the bluegrass recovered from dormancy. That may have something to do with the fact it wasn't dug up, or maybe it gets a little more shade there.

From here, I will be observing to see how long it takes to spread and fill the pot. I suspect it will be sometime next spring.

 

[fusebox7]

Those are very wide blades. Have they always been wide or have they gotten wider as the stand has matured? I only have seen blades that wide in my yard where there are bare areas. My dense areas are extremely fine bladed.

 

[j4c11]

Those are very wide blades. Have they always been wide or have they gotten wider as the stand has matured? I only have seen blades that wide in my yard where there are bare areas. My dense areas are extremely fine bladed.

They were much finer when the grass was young, they widened as it matured.

 

[j4c11]

I think we have reached the end of this experiment. The bluegrass has fully recovered and then some. We've actually had a very cold year winter this year, so I think under "normal" circumstances I would have seen today's results by early February. I don't know why bluegrass isn't used more in the transition zone, the potential is huge.

No supplemental water was provided, just whatever it got when it rained.

December 2017

February 2018

Today

Roots - depth of soil 6"

 

[Ridgerunner]

Nice experiment j4. I'm surprise that KBG is rooting so deep in a native soil or am I mistaken on the soil?

 

[Colonel K0rn]

You should try to duplicate this, and add PGR into the observation, with a regular spray interval.

 

[j4c11]

Nice experiment j4. I'm surprise that KBG is rooting so deep in a native soil or am I mistaken on the soil?

It's potting soil :nod:

 

[ericgautier]

Awesome experiment! Thanks for the updates.

 

[fusebox7]

If only we all had 6" of potting soil in our yards... the rhizomes in that last pic... :nod: