NQ Buffalo Fan?

Carpet grass (Axonopus compressus) is a tropical, warm seasoned grass grown predominantly in Northern Queensland, but can be found in Darwin and sporadically as far south as the Tweed. 

It is a broad leaf grass that is fairly dense, coarse-textured with a waxy leaf and dark green colour.  It is shallow rooted, which is why it is considered drought intolerant, yet overall it seems mostly well-adapted to North Queensland growing conditions. It is very popular choice for local parks and botanical gardens.

In Townsville, for the last 30 years it has been called Buffalo.  We coined ‘NQ Buffalo’ here at Paragon Gardens when we launched our website in 2018 to avoid confusion between it and the true fine leaf buffalo turf varieties that have become more readily available, like Kings Pride and Sir Walter.

= Brace Yourself =

Whilst we consider it to be a lawn grass, most in the turf industry consider Carpet grass to be a broadleaf weed. 

Taking this into consideration, this would make NQ Buffalo's biggest downside the fact that most weeds that you get growing in it are other broadleaf weeds, like clover, white-tip bindi and crowsfoot.   

It is for this reason, you can understand why we shudder when we hear the words NQ Buffalo and 'Bow and Arrow' in the same sentence.  

Broadleaf carpet grass is sensitive to broadleaf herbicide. 
'Bow and Arrow' is a herbicide used for broad leaf weed control.
 
Exceeding recommended application rates with a heavy-handed dose or overlapping sprayed areas will have dire effects on your lawn and may well leave it worse off than it was already.

Being forewarned is forearmed.  It is important to understand that:

• turf and weeds should always be actively growing at the time of treatment
• you never ever apply if weeds or turf are under stress (hottest weeks of summer) or dormant (winter months)
• complete weed death may take up to six weeks, so wait the time out patiently to see full result before reapplying
• there is real risk that transient discolouration may occur

In addition to this, it is nearly impossible to get a grass out of a grass, particularly Couch.  This explains why most turf growers (including ourselves) will use a disclaimer, such as, blend or mix.
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We believe the best method to combat broadleaf weeds and other invading grasses in a residential situation is to keep your NQ Buffalo healthy and robust by fertilising regularly in the growing season. 

A weed that can be treated more easily is nutgrass using Sempra, Sledgehemmer or something similar (active ingredient:  Halosulfuron methyl).

Being a tropical, warm seasoned grass, NQ Buffalo does not like Winter when the night temperatures drop.  Its shallow roots retract even further from the cold soil. Because of this, it is never recommended to do any maintenance between Anzac Day to mid-August.

NQ Buffalo:

• Competes with weeds in the wet season
• Will die back when there is no rain (poor wet season)
• Prefers a loam turf underlay (to hold the moisture) instead of a sandy base (too quick draining)
• Can survive in bad soil conditions
• Can be mowed at any height without risk of scalping (unless it is growing in heavy shade)
• Has the best shade tolerance (because of its broad-leaf)*
• Maintenance in the Winter months should be avoided
• Doesn’t like to be waterlogged

 
*Note:  all turf varieties require four – five hours of direct sunlight to live and grow.