Comments regarding Todd Valley Farms

I have gotten Bella grass plugs 3X from this company. The 1st was when High Country Gardens (before it sold) sent out my trial flat. It came from TVF. I followed the directions to the letter and had a flop of magnitudinal proportion. It looked like a bad science project. HCG graciously replaced the flat...not sure what happened but the 2nd flat were a hardier strain. Got those going and finally after 2 seasons they filled in, not exactly like what was promised. But I live out on the prairie, in freeze and fry conditions, the soil is sand-but amended sand. So most plants take awhile to establish. After the success, I ordered more flats and did another patch, that did better as the plugs seemed even more robust than earlier shipments. Plugs need lots and lots of water to establish is what I noticed. They need to be soaked thoroughly as a plug going into the soil, and then as it grows. I noticed that the edge ones needed to be almost drown to take hold. They get crispy fast. I also learned from the sod farm in Ft Morgan who got permits to grow it as sod that you can't put it in compost rich soil, it doesn't thrive as well in the beginning. They made that mistake in their experimentation. I contacted our extention service to include Bella as a good choice for our area, because I am pleased. It thrives, it is no mow for me, takes less water than what I see neighbors using on their lawns, and is GREEN, and gets greener when I use my excess pond water on it. I don't use anything but organic on my garden with two sheltie pups, a beehive, and a pond with fish, I am ultra careful of what is put in my garden. I couldn't be happier with the grass or the service of TVF, they were quite helpful with my questions, and fast to respond to emails. I don't hesitate to recommend them. And I LOVE Bella grass!!!!!

We converted our back lawn to Legacy Buffalo grass 2 years ago and love the results. I just finished ordering more plug trays from Todd Valley to complete the rest of our lawn. We received excellent service. We did have initial problems getting the plugs established 2 years ago because we didn't water enough during a hot New Mexico summer. Todd Valley not only replaced the plugs at no charge, they worked with us to make sure we were doing everything correctly on the second go round. There's nothing like people from Nebraska for honest service.

This is a 100% experimental lawn for me: I know of two installations of Buffalo Grass in Phoenix, two varieties planted as sod. If it works or not, I'm going to publicize the heck out of it.

I ordered 7 flats of UC Verde plugs on March 15th, requesting shipment on the 16th. It was shipped late on the 16th, arrived in Phoenix on the 20th by UPS ground. The boxes had obviously been dropped and plugs and dirt were all over the place. I know how UPS flings things as they sort - maybe a plastic air-pillow would have helped prevent the mass de-planting.

Out of 7 flats of plugs, two plugs were definitely dead, crisp and brown. A couple dozen were in critical condition but we planted anything with a hint of green in the crown or a live-looking root anyway, using the ZEBA root dip. Watering is twice a day, early AM and 2PM, for very short periods just to keep the top of the dirt damp and encourage runners to root.

Three weeks later, none of the planted plugs has died. They are showing new growth and some have runners 6-9 inches long.

I ordered for our yard in Thornton, CO, about 1800 Prestige plugs that arrived the first weekend in May of 2008. They arrived in good condition. I planted them.

There was a cold spell that weekend, and temperatures dropped into the 20's. This was too cold for the plugs, as they went dormant for several weeks.

Once the heat kicked in, the grass really took off. I did not use a pre-emergent, and battling weeds was a challenge. An application of 2-4-D when the temperature was around 80 deg F resulted in the killing of the plugs. An application of Drive 75F when temperatures were warm severely stunted and 'modified' the plugs. I had the common sense to only apply these herbicides to part of the planted area.

Looking back, here is what I learned.

Planting time:

May 1st in Denver is too early to plant these. The plugs are coming from a greenhouse. Waiting until temperatures were warmer, maybe a few more weeks, would have given a better window to kill weeds with warmth needing glyphosate prior to planting. It also would have reduced the chance of cold induced dormancy.

Herbicides:

No matter what the labels say, be really careful with herbicides--even with ones where the label says that it is rated for buffalo grass. Although temperatures were under the directed threshold when applied, the grass was injured significantly with both 2-4-D and Drive 75F.

Understanding the biology of the plugs:

The grass arrives as root-bound plugs. These root balls are mostly dead. New root growth will come from closer to the crown (the part where the roots and the blades meet). I learned this by digging up a section of turf that came from a plug 5 months after planting. The original root ball had no new growth. New roots had come from crowns from stolons.

Watering:

Stolons send out crowns that touch the soil. If these crowns are wet and warm long enough, they will aggressively send multiple roots quickly into the soil. If dry, they will not root. I watered more than recommended to speed the development of stolons and roots. Also, I watered so as to maximize surface wetness throughout the day, rather than deep down watering, as I was intending to stimulate surface roots.

Great things about Prestige Plugs:

In September, we needed to dig up some turf to plant trees. The root system was very impressive. The buffalo grass roots had penetrated 24" down into clay and loam soil.

The plugs stayed pretty green until middle of October. Then they turned a bit purple, and then gradually the amber of dormancy was established by Halloween. Interestingly, my neighbours' Kentucky Bluegrass went brown at the same time due to dryness as we all had blown out our sprinklers and stopped irrigating.

I plan on using glyphosate in the spring--after weeds have emerged but before the buffalo grass has greened--as well as some type of pre-emergent.

I have put a lot of work into it, but I believe the reduction in watering and mowing will be worth it starting this next growing season.

I ordered six trays of Zoysia plugs (72 plugs each) from Todd Valley Farms on Thursday, specifiying the following Monday as a shipping date. I was worried that it was too last minute to go out, but shouldn't have. It shipped Tuesday, and arrived on Friday evening in fantastic condition. Moist and healthy, and very well boxed. All the plugs were in great shape, and if these babies die, it will be no-one's fault but my own! I highly recommend this company.

I placed an order for Prestige buffalo last week and it arrived today. Our order was for 30 flats of plugs, 90 plugs in each flat. From Nebraska to Houston in the middle of the summer...it is flawless...truly beyond my expectations. The service could not have been better. The web-site is easy to use and explains about the benefits of buffalo grass. I spoke with the management several times before I ordered. I am using the grass for a home developer, who wants low maintenance, native landscaping.