By SHANNON HATHAWAY, Landscape Horticulturist and Sod Specialist
What’s in a Name? Well, if “Tif” is in the grass name, it came from the Tifton Turf Program at UGA. “Turfgrass breeding efforts at the University of Georgia Tifton Campus are focused on developing stress tolerant grasses that are more sustainable than older varieties.” www.caes.uga.edu
The Tifton program developed Tifway 419 in 1960. It was a marked improvement on the bermudagrasses of the time. Tifway 419 offered finer leaf texture and denser surface growth, but it required lots of direct sunlight – 8 or more hours per day. I was born in the 1960s and I have seen lots of change in my lifetime. So has the turfgrass industry!
In 2018, the Tifton program introduced TifTuf to the market. TifTuf outshines Tifway in the following ways:
- Drought Tolerance: TifTuf is 38% more drought tolerant than other bermudagrasses.
- Traffic Tolerance: Denser surface growth (double that of Tifway) and faster recovery times mean TifTuf can handle dogs, kids, and sports better than Tifway.
- Shade Tolerance: While TifTuf is by no means suited for shady areas, it requires a minimum of 6 or more hours of direct sun per day, 2 hours less than Tifway.
Let’s take a deeper dive into these improvements. Before being released into the market, TifTuf was drought-tested side-by-side with Tifway in 2015 and showed remarkable recovery. 16-19-SS-TifTuf-MEC.pdf (supersod.com) Of course TifTuf performs best with consistent irrigation, but its water needs are significantly less (38% less) than Tifway, or any other grass on the market for that matter.
When we discuss surface growth, what we mean is how densely the runners (stolons) are sprigged in warm-season grass. Common Bermuda has sprigs (nodes) every 1-3” along its runners (stolons), leaving wiry gaps between. Tifway 419 has nodes every ½”-1”. TifTuf has sprigs every ¼”! That dense sprigging results in a thick turf that leaves less room for weeds to penetrate has a greater root surface and recovers from injury more quickly. The key to keeping this dense growth is mowing every 4-5 days and keeping the grass short! The ideal mowing height is ½” to 1.5”. Taller Bermuda shades out its own root system and gets thin. The worst mistake I see in the care of Bermuda is mowing every 2 weeks. The grass gets too tall, the root base thins and the grass looks scalped when mowed, leaving behind dry, tan stalks and little or no green.
Shade tolerance is still elusive in bermudagrasses. Think of them as the athletes of the turfgrass world. As high performers, they need lots of sun to do the photosynthesis required to keep them fed properly. So mow them frequently, keep them short, and feed them with 16-4-8 in early May, mid-June, and early August in central NC.
And the clear winner is… TifTuf Bermuda!
