This seed is offered by local nursery in the DC metro area. Do any of you have experience with the Jonathan Green Black Beauty seed line?
I have tall fescue and a never ending battle with clover, crab grass, creeping Charlie and wild clover. I plan to kill a lot of it and start over. Perhaps with this seed?
Technically DC is the south but we have weather similar to central Midwest. Cold winters, hot and humid summers and long periods of rain with drought mixed in.
by Own_Weird8572
28 Comments
I have read here that this brand is good stuff. Just bought the original to try this year. High expectations
I ended up with a ton of clumping fescue after using black beauty ultra.
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I use exclusively Jonathan Green Black Beauty Ultra Seed. I’m in Massachusetts.
Just reseeded my lawn with the ultra sun and shade coming in really good right now
My front yard is all BB Ultra and the back is Dense shade. So far so good.
I used it last year. This spring, I had excessive amounts of poa. Read the tag, and understand it. Even if it’s 0.1% weed seed, that’s a fuck ton of poa.
Trash. It was once rated a top level seed that you could buy locally. But since Covid, their products have been riddled with weed seeds, and even coming with false labels, stating 0.0%, but then weeds pop up everywhere. And this isn’t due to weed seeds existing in turf. Also, the weeds it comes with are some of the worst…quackgrass and poa triv.
The best places to buy seed now is generally considered Twin City seed, United Seed, Stover, and some Barenbrug varieties as well.
At this point, you’re short on time to kill the weeds and get seed down….
Ohio
I’ve used the original and dense shade. One of the few alternatives to Scott’s or other big box brands I can get locally. I also got some poa, but it’s so hard to tell where that comes from. It’s a constant fight… Long Island here.
Yes have tried three of the four products, with the exception being BB Original. Results were phenomenal. Going to try their new all-KBG mix this year called Blue Panther.
I use the Black Beauty Dense Shade all the time. It grows as advertised. Only downside is it’s expensive
Go with Twin City Resilience II. BBU has weeds in it if you look at the label
Might have to try this product out, see if it comes in nicely
I’m reading the labels and they all seem to Tall fescues, perennial ryegrass & Kentucky bluegrass. Is there any reason to nitpick what I use and where?
I have used black beauty ultra and it’s great. Using it again to overseed. I’m in Wisconsin
As far as cuktivars go, it’s “fine”
It has weed seeds, you want to make sure you use a for seeding preemergent with it.
If you aren’t getting premium seed, this is a good choice.
I only use Jonathan Green Ultra Seed and love it (I also mix in Sun and Shade and their Kentucky Bluegrass Panther seed)
I also use their soil amendments and they work like a charm.. Once the seed is established you can use Mesotrione Herbicide for the clover, crab grass, charlie, etc. eradication..
I have been using it this year for my lawn, I think the seed is great! This is my got to seed from now on.
I would go to a local seed supplier and buy from them.
Yup, in my opinion JG works, but it has a shit ton of weed. I get a bunch of POA annua every time I use it.
Just ordered 2 25lb bags of sunny seed for 5a. I’m a bit late, but next week looks great for us too
JG is good but you could do better for cheaper. If you go to a local lawn/irrigation supply store you’ll be able to score a blue tag certified seed, likely with cultivars recommended by your local extension office for cheaper than you can buy JG. I picked up a bag of Black Beauty and not a single fescue cultivar in the bag was on my extension office’s list of recommended cultivars. On the flip side I picked up a 50# bag of lesco tall fescue select from a local landscape store, it was blue tag, all 3 cultivars were highly recommended category 1 by my extension office and it was $130.
Coincidentally I was looking at this online last night after recommending my neighbor get Super Turf II from United Seeds. I felt bad recommending 50lbs of seed that cost $175. I had used BBUltra in Illinois like 6 years ago and it was decent so I thought maybe I’d present it as an alternative for him. Then I saw it was $130 for 25lbs. Go with a quality blue tag bag from United or Twin City or GCI or whomever else for cheaper.
I have found if you’re buying black beauty, you need to look at the bag and make sure there’s no weed seeds or other crops. Some have zero and some have a small percentage.
I just put down the dense shade mix here in the Midwest… we shall see. I’ve heard good things though
Got lots of weeds from it
I have tried those products before. I say they are a slight step up compared to big box store brands. Slight at most. It does make a nice lawn and it does provide you with some weeds.
Really you want to buy from a reputable seed seller like Twin City Seed, United Seed, Stover and others that have premium seeds with no weeds.
Only seed I’ve used for last 3 seasons. I use the sunny mix for my front