Green News Online - September 2010
 


LSU's "Death Valley" Switches to Celebration® Bermudagrass (Video)
The playing surface of Louisiana State University's "Death Valley" has undergone a major "grass transplant." Gone is the old Bull's-Eye® Bermuda and in its place, Celebration® Bermudagrass. The new turfgrass was installed in June by Adel, Georgia-based Pike Creek Turf, Inc.


The change to Celebration has much to do with the grasses' success at other LSU venues. Tiger field managers have been using Celebration for years at the university's soccer, softball and baseball facilities. Its proven toughness and durability is backed up by university research studies where Celebration has finished top-rated for drought resistance and recovery, wear tolerance, divot-injury recovery and shade tolerance. Celebration has made major inroads into golf as well, being used by Nicklaus Design® and other firms for golf course development.



Celebration, already used by the National Football League's Tampa Bay Bucaneers, has been gaining popularity for sports fields worldwide because of its rapid recovery characteristics and its low surface hardness. Surface hardness directly correlates with incidence of player injury. Another appealing feature of Celebration is that it is more Earth friendly, in part because of lower nitrogen needs. Celebration uses 50% less nitrogen than other bermudagrass varieties.