Emerald Turf Farm

Emerald Turf

Where the Green Grass Grows

Emerald Turf Farm has been in business for 36 years!

The owners of the farm love to grow turf and even have their degrees in Agronomy and Horticulture. Keeping abreast of the newest cultivars of grass (what is the greenest, what is the thickest, and what grows the best in Utah), are their major hobbies.

measuring sod Each year the 7 best seeds are selected and planted in the new fields on the farm.

Each field is replanted after every harvest (which by the way takes 2 years to get a thick plush grass without netting).

Replanting after every harvest ensures that each field is clean and weed-free, and level so that the sod that you get is weed-free, and each piece is uniform in thickness.

It may take us a little longer to get a crop to harvest, but the resulting clean turf with a beautiful cut is worth it. The boss is a stickler about quality, and that is what keeps our customers coming back year after year.

Emerald Turf Farm is the only farm in Utah located on a dark brown sandy-loam soil. We can not take credit for this, we were just lucky to have an area of earth that used to be a delta of old Lake Bonneville. But, we do claim the blessings of being here, and this rich soil grows a dark green, plush grass amazingly well.

One of the owners (you know the stickler), believes in conservation, both of water and of soil, and works tirelessly to not waste either, so he makes sure he grows a beautiful and drought tolerant Kentucky Bluegrass. He also believes in composting all scraps and limiting chemical usage to protect the environment.

Kentucky bluegrass is a well known and well-loved grass in Utah because of it ability to adapt to many temperatures and varying water practices and still maintains its beauty. It is bred to be disease resistant. It is also bred to be dark green and soft. Running bare foot through this grass is just a pleasant experience!

Another important quality of Kentucky bluegrass is its durability. If it does not get water for a few weeks even during the growing season, it will go dormant, and can be watered back up again to a beautiful plush lawn again.

This is due to the rhizome root system that only Kentucky bluegrass has, it spreads by these roots, and sends up new plants from these roots which keep your lawn plush and thick.

This rhizome root system is also what makes our grass so durable on playing fields and high traffic areas.

Emerald Turf Farm offers on time deliveries, and professional installation. Picking up your own turf is also available for those who need smaller amounts or who own larger trucks!

See our Sod:
Brigham Young University
Salt Lake Temple Square
Payson Temple

Installation and Lawn Care

Fertilizing

Hey at Emerald Turf we KNOW how to install sod, and we love to do it. We’ve installed football fields, soccer fields, parks, playgrounds, and hundreds of homes. We enjoy the big and the small jobs! If you have a bad back, a weak heart, or no time, let our crew do the work for you. We can install large rolls or small slabs, whatever works best for your job. We bid the job before we begin so that you know exactly what it will cost before we start.

After the lawn has become established, then it can be fertilized. This is at least after a time period of two weeks. It has been fertilized here, at the farm, so it can definitely wait that long before another feeding. Fertilize it with a good starter fertilizer such as Scotts Starter Fertilizer, and then water, water, water! (All About Lawns, Ortho). Fertilize every four weeks starting in late February.

Use a starter fertilizer such as 10-10-10 or 16-16-8 in February. Then starting in late March and once a month throughout October, use Urea (46-0-0) on your lawn. Use 2.5 lbs. /1000 sq.ft. Apply the fertilizer with a broadcast spreader (not a drop spreader). Water in immediately.

In Late October or early November, use the 10-10-10 or the 16-16-8 again to slow the growth and winterize your lawn. Once a year in May or June use Iron-Sol (granular) on your lawn as our soils in Utah are low in available iron. These can be purchased at IFA or at any other lawn and garden store.

Mowing: After 2 weeks of extensive watering your grass will have sufficient roots and will need to be mowed. Begin mowing at your mowers highest setting. This will ensure that your grass will not be shocked when it is mowed. 2 to 3 days later you may mow your new lawn to 2 1/2 inches, which is the recommended height. The turf can be mowed shorter, but this does affect the drought tolerance of the sod. Keep your mower blades sharp to allow for a clean, crisp cut. You should be mowing twice a week, when your lawn is properly fertilized.

Mulching vs. Bagging

If you are mowing 2 or more times per week you may leave the grass clippings on the grass. Small amounts of clippings will decompose themselves and add nutrients to your soil. If you have large amounts of clippings rake them off of the grass. You can create a clipping pile to compost or bag and dispose of your clippings.

Watering

For the first two weeks of your lawn water 3 times a day (May, June, July, Aug, Sept) for a total of 1 inch of water per day. For installations in March, April, October or November water 1 time per day for a total of 3/4 inch of water. An inch can be measured by placing an empty tuna can on the lawn while sprinkling and measuring the amount in the can. Once the lawn becomes established, you can begin to approach a normal watering schedule.

To keep your lawn healthy and green in todays drought conditions you must train your lawn to live on less water less often. This schedule will provide an 8 week conditioning of your lawns roots. Your lawns roots can reach a depth of 8-12 inches if trained to. At the end of 8 weeks you will be watering once every 5 days. Keeping both your lawn and your wallet green.

Normal Watering Schedule

After 2 weeks of extensive watering, the sod will be rooted to your soil. For the next two weeks (weeks 2 to 4 of having your lawn), water once every other day. You still need to put 1 inch of water down during this one watering, so still use the tuna can for measurement.

Weeks 5 and 6

Water every 3 days. For example, of you water on Monday, water again on Thursday. Put down a total of 1 inch of water each watering.

Weeks 7 and 8

Water once every 4 days. You still need 1 to 1 ¼ inches of water at a time.

After week 8

From now on, water once every 5 days, putting on 1 ½ inches of water at a time during the summer months, a little less in the fall. Follow this schedule throughout the summer and fall. Continue to water in the late fall until the natural storms take over for you.
Note: If you have extremely sandy soil, you will have to water more frequently as the sand cannot hold the water. If you have extremely clay soil, you may have to divide your inch of water per day into two sessions on that day so that the water will have time to penetrate the soil.

Measuring

Lawn Renovations

Many times in the last 36 years, we have met people who love where they live, but hate their old grass and want to start over. We can either do the work for you, or we will explain here how to start over.

measuring sod The most important and therefore the first step to renovating correctly is to kill out the old yard. Round-up is the chemical of choice. It kills all grasses and weeds. It will also kill any trees, shrubs or flowers that you directly spray as well so be careful in your spraying! It will not kill any tress or shrubs whose roots run under your grass as Roundup is neutralized when it hits the soil therefore it will not get into an underground root to kill a tree or shrub.

When spraying, you will need to be very vigilant in making sure you get every spot of old grass. We do this by putting a dye or turf marker in our sprayers before applying the spray. You too can purchase these dyes from IFA or other chemical stores. These dyes make the sprays a dark blue color so we can tell exactly where we have sprayed. We also use a spray surfactant to help the spray stick to the plants better and to be taken into the plants vascular systems quicker.

After spraying the Roundup, you will need to wait anywhere from 3 to 10 days (depending on how warm it is outside) to see if any grasses survived the spray. Usually, the tougher “bad grasses” such as crab, orchard, and the bunch grasses take at least 1 more spray session and we usually do 2 more when we renovate lawns just to make sure the grasses are dead for sure. You don’t want them to come through your new sod so be over diligent with the spraying!

Once you can see that your old lawn is definitely dead, now is the time to remove it. This can be done one of two ways. You can rototill the old grass and rake the small dead pieces out of the soil. Or you can rent a hand sod cutter and remove the dead grass in long strips that you roll up and haul to the compost dump. You will still need to rototill the soil after the old grass is removed to break up the compaction and relevel. If your soil has sat for a while and is very dry, you will find it helpful to turn on your sprinklers until the soil is moist to a depth of 6 inches. Then, let it dry out for a couple of days until it is easy to till or cut off with the sod cutter. Optimum moisture makes the job A LOT easier, and is a key to getting good tillage or a good cut from the cutter.

measuring sod

You must wait 7 days from your last spraying before you lay new sod. You CAN till and remove the old sod without waiting 7 days, but you must wait the 7 days before laying the new sod. Make sure your soil is soft and level and just like you want it to look when the job is finished. If your soil is mostly clay or mostly sand, you can amend your soil before tilling by adding any kind of aged manure, or compost. Then till it all together so that you have one homogenous soil to a depth of 6 inches. Your soil may be really fluffy after tilling.

You can hurry the settling process by raking, dragging a piece of fence with a four wheeler, or watering using your sprinkling system (just let it dry a little before laying the sod or you will be working in mud).

You can also rent a roller that you fill with water and roll the soil to settle it. If this seems like too much work, give us a call, we do it often and have it down to a science and would be happy to renovate your lawn for you! Or if you have any questions, give us a call we’d be happy to help you through the process.

Services

Other Services

Here at Emerald Turf, we also sell sandy loam topsoil, granular fertilizers, sod knives and trimmers, and compost.

If you are looking to improve your flower beds or vegetable gardens, may we suggest the compost. We have been using it for years in our own personal gardens and have loved it so much, we finally decided to bring it in and sell it.

If you have clay soils, hard-to-drain soils, or nutrient poor soils, the compost will improve your soil by improving your soils tilth (farmer language for texture and feel).

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