DIYbanter - View Single Post - No-mow, easy-grow grass?

dpb

On 9/11/2012 11:11 AM, wrote:
On Sep 11, 11:46 am, wrote:
On 9/11/2012 9:27 AM, wrote:
...

I didn't say they were exotic. Only that typically commercial
seed producers don't deal with JQ Public and have order
quantities that start with 50lb bags, if they will even deal
with the public at all. I've gone looking for a specific seed
variety that I wanted and it was extremely difficult to find it even
though I was willing to buy 50lbs. After much searching, I finally
found one sod farm that sold it.
Also, do you really buy that he planted and actually
evaluated 1000 different grasses on his lawn? Like
I said, when he has NTEP data that shows what it
does, then I'll be a believer. All this is to me is a cute
little story with little to back it up.

...

W/ appropriate tongue-in-cheek/fingers-crossed for advertising leeway,
sure I believe he did what it says--raised a bunch of pots of mixes.

Do I have any doubts he could buy the various fescues and so on w/ only
a modicum of effort? None--all he's got to do is claim he's another
grower or whatever and there are enough seed houses if it's not really
far out like you'll he'll eventually find one.

I found one that would sell me a 50lb bag of the tall
fescue seed I was looking for. One supplier in the whole
country and that was after hours of googling.
It cost me $100. They don't sell it by the pound to the
local JQ Public guy. That was my point. Now if
you had to do that with 1,000 varieties, it seems like
one hell of a stretch to me.

I think you're forgetting or at least overlooking that he apparently has
been at this for quite some time and was apparently pretty-much a
fanatic. Folks like that can accomplish a lot that "ordinary" folk w/o
the dedication don't.

I'd guess if you had known a local distributor well you could have
gotten it through them--or via conservation district of extension office
or land-grant university. Or the local golf course groundskeeper or
city parks/rec overseer or ...

Maybe because we farm and buy bulk seed all the time it doesn't seem
like any big deal to me--I'd guess he would have developed inroads over
time as well.

OTOH, going back to the article it doesn't say he bought thousands of
different seed varieties at all--it says he "gathered thousands of grass
samples". A miniature Charles Darwin on a specific path...

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