At one point in time K-31 was the newest tall fescue cultivar you could use and was better than the wild pasture type. That was about 30 years ago. Since then TF has been improved a tremendous amount. It is still included in the NTEP trials, and while it is dead last in most of the categories related to color, turf quality, traffic tolerance, blade width and percent living ground cover, it does have some good attributes. It's one of the first to green up in spring, has high seedling vigor, suffers little winter kill, is pretty drought tolerant, does very good against pink snow mold, and does very well in summer's heat. It does have it's place, but in terms of a quality lawn, it's a poor choice. Think of it as more of a pasture type, that you don't really worry about once it's established.

I guess time flies when you're having fun, Tiemco. K-31 was discovered in Kentucky in 1931, and introduced to the public in 1943.

Yikes. I guess I was thinking of Rebel and Falcon which are about 30 years old. Thanks for the catch Andy.

So what is considered the best variety of turf-type tall fescue?

To make a long story short, I came into 50 pounds of K31 for free, so the majority of my lawn is that. I don't really mind how it looks, except that right now it is a bit patchy, so I'm not inclined to nuke it. I'm going to start overseeding with good stuff in the Fall though.

Good stuff, i.e. some of the newest cultivars like Bullseye, Faith, Turbo, Hemi, etc, are not going to blend with K-31 as they are vastly different in color and texture. If you have K-31 as you lawn, and you don't want to renovate, then I would stick with K-31.

Hmmm, I was hoping to slowly transform my lawn into something better over a period of years. Not a good idea, huh?

Nope, doesn't work like that. It would be less work to just kill it all and seed what you want in one shot.

Agreed. You would be transitioning from something that is fairly uniform looking into a mix that just looks weedy. The K31 would provide the weedy look. Since the k31 is a grass type weed, it is very difficult to get rid of short of total nuking with RoundUp.

If I just moved into your home with a yard full of it, I would watch the watering frequency, mow high, and hit it hard with organic fertilizer all season and see if you get better results. Then if it shows any weakness in the fall, I would over seed the thin areas. By fall of 2014 if it was not looking pretty good, then I would consider renovating.

That sounds like a reasonable plan.

After working for 43 years in turf maintenance I have seen a huge difference in tall fescue varieties that have been introduced for home lawns in North Carolina. K 31 fescue was the primary grass of choice when I started in 1975, then later the finer blade turf types became the rave. Long story short the old K 31 performs better due to it roots deeper into the clay soils here. Doesn't show drought stress as soon as the turf types. Will grow out of disease conditions more favorably. So guess what I am transforming my lawn back to K 31, it is the only one in my lawn that is still green in July after 3 weeks of 90 plus temperatures. The turf type is totally dormant and brown. In this climate Bermuda or zoysia are the better lawn choices. In reality a turf that spread is the best lawn. Clump grasses like fescue do not and had to be seeded every fall to maintain it. But bottom line K31 fescue survives most stresses better than the newer turf types

All I can say is bag of K31 i planted in my backyard (my dogs Kingdom) when I first moved into my home about 4 years is the only thing that doesn't get disease or heat stress.

I've since overseeded (and in some cases, I've seeded bare areas) with other TTTF and KBG, but they regularly die each summer from the transition zone heat and the abuse from the dog(s). I don't use fungicides or herbicides or insecticides in my backyard because of the dog. Backyard mainly gets Milorganite and water.

While everything else does off, the K31 laughs and just grows another inch or two higher. Think about it: K31 is a pasture grass--/it's meant to have herds move across it, scalping it to the crown eating it, and then grow back. I'm sure it would survive a nuclear holocaust and even outlive the cockroaches. The only thing that seems to kill it is when my k9 digs a hole in the backyard heh.

That being said, I would never use it on my front lawn. I use more "elite" TTTF in my front lawn, where I can baby it to ensure that it stays healthy. Again, I don't use chemicals in the backyard but the front yard I will bust out the weed killer and/or fungicide, when needed. Unlike my backyard, I have irrigation in the front yard. The babying of the TTTF in the front yard is what keeps it alive in the summer (whereas the TTTF in the backyard dies).

The only thing that is decently competing what the K31 in my backyard is the hybrid bluegrass I put down about 2 years ago. (Thermal blue blaze) It didn't do much last year, but this year I've noticed it spreading like wildfire into the areas that have thinned out from the KBG and TTTF dying off on the backyard.

In other words:

K31 is superior for low maintenance lawns that get abuse. It's not a showcase lawn.