Kings Pride - Buffalo
Scientific name: Stenotaphrum secundatum
Buffalo Turf grass is the common name in Australia, and it is otherwise known as St Augustine grass in North America.
Origin: Matilda was a seedling derived from ‘Shademaster’ on a Hawkesbury turf farm west of Sydney, NSW.
Kings Pride is a new Australian Soft Leaf Buffalo that keeps its colour more through the winter than any other on the market. It is softer to touch, is much harder wearing and most of all looks better with little fuss, which gives you more time to enjoy your lawn and your life.
King’s Pride Buffalo grass has the same hard-wearing, densely luxurious feeling that you know from standard buffalo varieties … with a few surprises for a buffalo grass!
Unique Features
Compared to other buffalo grass varieties, King’s Pride Buffalo is:
- More shade tolerant;
- Soft-leaved;
- Rough and tough; and
- Chemical-resistant.
Tolerances
- Toughness: 5/5 for toughness. This buffalo grass variety can take a lot of wear and tear, cricket pitches, impromptu football games and daily traffic.
- Sun and Shade: 4/5 for shade tolerance. King’s Pride Buffalo grass can survive complete light exclusion (underneath kid’s pools, etc) for months at a time; it is also green and fresh even in positions that never receive direct sun.
- Water Usage: 4/5 stars for water usage. King’s Pride Buffalo is a very water-wise grass variety.
- Mowing: Cylinder or rotary. It can also handle very low mowing. King’s Pride Buffalo will tolerate mowing heights as low as 15mm
- Soil pH: 5.5 - 6.5.
- Maintenance: 2/5 for maintenance.
- Spreading: King’s Pride Buffalo is a fast-spreading grass, so there is slightly more edging needed with this as opposed to other buffalo grass varieties.
Should I Use King’s Pride Buffalo?
If your family and yard-usage habits tend to kill lawns quickly, if you have dogs or if you’re renovating a property for renting out, King’s Pride Buffalo is an excellent choice. This buffalo grass variety is generally very tough, has fantastic wear tolerance and does exceptionally well in shade. It’s also fantastically spongy … fewer tears when the touch footy game gets a bit too ‘touchy’! Make sure you have the time to maintain it, though.
Detailed Review - The Buffalo Grass Review
In general, this grass did well in the Horticulture Australia trials. Good in the wear tests, moderate in the shade tests, and does seem to have better than average winter colour. It has a very coarse leaf, and grows very fast. In warm areas like Sydney and Queensland, this high speed of growth can cause a lot of extra maintenance work, and will often result in more thatch. In a lot of ways it is very similar to Sir Walter, but perhaps it would be safer to pick Sir Walter or Sapphire over Kings Pride if you want a faster growing Buffalo grass type. They are more proven. Kings Pride’s leaf tips in measurements conducted were wider than most of the Buffalo types, and it appears to infold less at the tips.
Kings Pride performs well, similar to Sir Walter in most aspects. It has the fastest spread of any of the grasses listed above, so obviously it will need more garden edging than all the others, and more regular mowing. This grass is not for someone looking for a low maintenance Buffalo. The positive of this is that it can recover quickly from wear. It is also quite expensive, which is rather surprising given that it is a new relatively unknown Buffalo Grass.
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