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Is KBG better than fescue blend for a full sun lawn?

10 years ago

We had Pennington's tall fescue/KBG blend sod installed toward the end of the season last year and lost almost all of it to snow mold.(A lot of this due to inconsistent or downright bad advice from the landscaping company).

Luckily, they warrantied our sod and agreed to replace it. This time they were going to use Black Beauty blend. Well, come to find out, they actually installed Kentucky Blue Grass. I am a little annoyed because we specifically chose the fescue blend for it's drought resistance. We've got a 1 year old and 3 year old and, although it doesn't sound complicated, it's a real hassle for me to get outside to water the lawn, even if it just entails going out to move the sprinkler around. I'm also irritated because they went and changed the order without even asking me about it!

Anyway, the landscaping guy tells me "tall fescue blends do best in much more shaded lawns whereas the KB is better suited for your sunny back yard." (Our lawn has a northern exposure with no shade trees). I wonder if this is even true. It seems couterintuitive that fescue, which is more drought resistant, would do better in a shaded vs. sunny area. My feeling is they probably got a better deal on the KBG so just went ahead and used that.

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Comments (3)

CPTK
10 years ago
It's true that tall fescue does better in shade than KBG, but that doesn't really mean the converse is true. Tall fescue does better in the shade AND better in the sun (more drought tolerant). The two reasons to go with KBG are 1. you think it looks better, which many people do, or 2. it spreads and tall fescue doesn't. Other than that, fescue has it beat on just about every count: better shade tolerance, better drought tolerance, better disease tolerance, better wear tolerance.

This post was edited by CPTK on Thu, May 23, 13 at 20:34
fampoula
Original Author
10 years ago
Well, I do actually like the look and feel of the KBG better than the fescue blend. I guess I am just nervous about the maintainance. From what I've read, it looks like 6 in one, half a dozen in the other. The KBG requires more water, but with the fescue mix, you have overseed as frequently as every year?

Also, in terms of durability, we were told fescue is better for wear and tear, but I think that's subjective too since fescue is more durable, but KBG will repair itself. I was hoping that the fescue blend would be the best of both worlds. I had read really good things about the Black Beauty. Also, given that almost all of our lawn was affected by snow mold, I couldn't believe how well the old fescue mix eventually came back.

The thing I'm MOST concerned about and the reason we had to re-sod in the first place is grubs. We had them pretty bad and then the animals started digging, which made it worse. I think the landscaper originally told us fescue was more tolerant to grubs, which was a big selling point for us. So, if KBG is more vulnerable to grubs, I am concerned.

I guess, at this point, I'm just really ticked off that the landscaper switched the product on us, so I just want to be sure that we're not going to be in trouble down the road on this. If I'm going to complain, or try and get him to re-install fescue/KBG mix, I should do it now.

Otherwise, I guess if we're not happy with the performance of the KBG we can eventually start overseeding our current lawn with fescue mix over the next few years?

Thank you everyone for your advice.
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If it's a shaded area KBG will not do well. If it's a very shaded area, no grass will do well, maybe red fescue will tolerate it. Tall fescue does not spread at all, neither does ryegrass, and so if there's any spreading to happen it would have to be the KBG. But the KBG is unlikely to thrive in the shade. Also, keep in mind that when you say "fairly small portion", the KBG seed is many times smaller than fescue seed, so if your mix is 90% fescue 10% KBG by weight, it's actually 50%-50% by seed count, so you would end up with a lawn that's half fescue half KBG. You can try and dormant seed some tall fescue into it - spread some seed when it gets really cold so there's no chance of it germinating in the middle of the winter. Once it warms up in the spring it will sprout. It's less than ideal and it may all die when the summer heat comes, but you'll have something green in the spring.
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Mine is starting to green up nicely now. Still a slight yellow tint in a few areas that are more exposed to frost than others but overall looking much better. If the warmer temps hold out as expected I should be mowing in another 2 to 3 weeks if the ground will dry out a little. Right now it's a bit soggy.
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grass1950
10 years ago
Define drought resistance.
During a drought, fescue will stay green longer than KBG (which will go dormant and look dead), but once fescue runs out of sufficient moisture, it doesn't go dormant,, it is dead dead. As long as dormant KBG gets enough water to keep the crowns alive (about an inch of water every 2-3 weeks), it will recover and the next spring will spread to help fill any areas of loss.
As far as grubs, they are not good for any turf type. You need to treat for them Grub-ex at the proper time to prevent and Bayer 24 Hour to kill during the active feeding period.

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