Kikuyu grass chosen for sportsfield

By James Culley, Stover Seed Company

On Oct. 15 the Nordhoff High School Rangers of Ojai played their first football home game in their rebuilt stadium, where the field had specified for kikuyu grass.

OJAI, CA--While kikuyu has become a dominant grass on sportsfields, it did so by encroaching onto the field and spreading vegetatively with mowing. This is the first football field in the country to plant kikuyu by choice. There are a couple of soccer fields done with kikuyu in the Los Angeles area and of course golf courses but this breaks new ground.

On Oct. 15 the Nordhoff High School Rangers of Ojai played their first football home game in their rebuilt stadium. What made this event special is the entire football stadium field was sodded with AZ-1 kikuyu grass. The sod was installed one month before and had already produced 3 inch roots and been mowed twice in the first couple of weeks. While there has been construction of a new track and discus area, water has been withheld for as long as three days and yet the turf responded to rehydration quickly with no loss of turf.

Some of the advantages of the grass include wearability and no need to overseed. Water was withheld while they were installing the all weather track. The sod was provided by Kern Farming Company's Rediplay Turf and installed by P&D Landscape. The field was to have been installed back in July but delays occurred. After each week the field was e evaluated after installation for root development shoot growth. The high school could have held off for another week for the Rangers Homecoming game, but the grass felt like it could play.