of turf-type tall fescue in 2009, but we wanted a more aesthetically-pleasing product. In 2010, we switched to Jonathan Green’s Black Beauty, which is 70 percent tall fescue, 20 percent bluegrass and 10 percent perennial ryegrass.”
In February of 2010, Hogan reports, “One of the science teachers at a private school on Nantucket had dumped a bag of fertilizer and poured water on it, saying this is what your bluegrass sod is doing to the island and the water. Rather than view that as a threat to our sales, because of John’s proactive thinking, we had an alternative growing in our fields, the Black Beauty tall fescue which uses 30 percent less water. We decided to use that negative as an opportunity to promote it.”
In May of 2011, Hogan had a prime opportunity for that promotion. Te private school that had started the anti- bluegrass campaign was holding an event that was open to vendors. Hogan says, “Our booth ended up right next to the Conservation Commission. He had a poster of a guy pushing a fertilizer spreader through the water. I had samples of our standard cut bluegrass and Black Beauty. I told potential customers that choosing bluegrass wouldn’t help the commission get that guy out of the water. Finally, he came over and I told him you have a problem; we understand the situation and have a solution. From then on, he was sending people to me. Our first truckload of sod into that area was 12,000 square feet of bluegrass and 1,200 square feet of Black Beauty, but it was a start. We’ve gone from five acres of Black Beauty in 2010 to over 300 acres of it in 2018.”
Microclover In 2013, Eidson was contacted by an old friend, Don Woodall, a plant breeder and seedsman, about a project he was working on with the New York City Parks
Department with a no fertilizer, no chemical and limited water situation for Lindower Park in Brooklyn. Eidson brought in some Microclover seed from DLF and blended it with the Black Beauty seed to plant two acres of what would become Sodco’s Microclover™ Black Beauty Blend (also known by the product name Players Best). Sodco’s website states, “Unlike 'white clover' or 'dutch clover', Microclover will not colonize by spreading and growing only in patches. Microclover™ plants will remain small, individual, and evenly sprinkled throughout the grass to create a look that is beautiful and a lawn that is self- sustaining. Te Microclover’s ability to fix nitrogen makes it “its own little fertilizer factory.”
Hogan says, “In September of 2015, the contractor installed 15,000 square feet of the Microclover sod in the park. In February of 2016, it passed the regulatory and compliance initiatives and we were given authorization to talk about it. In 2016, we sold 42,000 square feet; in 2017, 120,000 square feet, and in 2018, we had 130,000 square feet sold with an 80,000 square foot job on the books for late fall.”
As a demonstration to further showcase the microclover product as a permanent living cover, Eidson grew organic vegetables in a year-old field. “We tilled 5-inch-wide rows into the sod and planted tomatoes, peppers and squash,” he says. “We only applied fertilizer at the time of planting; installed a drip tape for irrigation; and mulched around the plants using the Microclover clippings. While we did sell the produce through a local, distributor-operated, organic market, our goal was not to get into the vegetable business, but to show off the grass. We had a 90 percent reduction in tillage and approximately a 90 percent plus reduction in carbon emissions, because we only tilled that 5-inch strip and covered the exposed soil with clippings. We didn’t have to worry about water erosion, wind erosion
Sodco installed Microclover Black Beauty Blend in the outdoor gather- ing place of the Tis Old House “Net Zero” project in Jamestown.
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To showcase Microclover Black Beauty Blend as a permanent living cover, John Eidson planted vegetables into a year-old field.
TPI Turf News January/February 2019
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