Village Green Kikuyu

Village green versus common Kikuyu
photo courtesy of Village Green

Village Green - A New Kikuyu Grass

Village Green Kikuyu is another new variant in the family of Male Sterile Kikuyu grasses. Like the other new MSK types, Village Green was specially developed to have brand new characteristics for Kikuyu in all the traits where the old style common Kikuyu fell so short. So let's take a look at some of these new traits for Village Green Kikuyu.

Winter Colour

Village Green holds superior colour over the Winter months when compared to old Common Kikuyu. As the old style Kikuyu begins deteriorating in colour in Winter, the Village Green lawn will still hold it's green colour at a superior rate.

Sward Density

Lawn sward is the density of the upper turf, which includes stolons and leaf material. Village Green Kikuyu has a more dense sward than common Kikuyu, and the more dense a sward, the less chance of weed invasion.

This is because the weed seeds find it more difficult to initially reach the soil in a dense sward, and in the cases where seeds do reach the soil and propagate, they are often weakened and out competed by density of the lawn sward.

So Village Green is a very good turf for outcompeting weeds.

Village Green Is Sterile - Great News

Unlike common Kikuyu, Village Green is a Male Sterile Kikuyu. Whereas common Kikuyu has been a noxious weed within the Australian environment for decades due to it's fine seed heads that easily spread in the wind to surrounding lawns and native areas which then create ongoing damage.

Being a Male Sterile Kikuyu, Village Green doesn't suffer from this same fate, it's seeds are sterile and therefore cannot reproduce in any environment. And that's great news for the Australian environment, as well as making Village Green a superior good neighbour lawn over common Kikuyu.

Rhizomes - What Are They and Why Are They So Important

Village Green Kikuyu was bred to have a massive underground root system, as well as massive amounts of rhizomes. Rhizomes are the underground runners that a lawn produces.

This is an important development for Kikuyu and important to understand why Village Green is different from common Kikuyu.

The deeper the roots, and the deeper the rhizomes, the more drought tolerant a lawn becomes, and this also equates to less water being required to keep the lawn healthy.

So greater depth and quantity of rhizomes and roots makes Village Green more drought tolerant, more able to recover from drought, and uses less water than common Kikuyu.

Shade Tolerance

Village Green does not seem to display any greater shade tolerance than common Kikuyu. Kikuyu loves the full sun and will only tolerate minor shade levels, and this is a common trait in the Kikuyu grass family.

Lawn Mowing and Growth Rates

We are not aware of any independent studies as to the growth rate of Village Green when compared to other Male Sterile Kikuyus or compared to the Common Kikuyu, so we cannot rate this grass for it's growth and lawn mowing requirements in comparison to other Kikuyus. However, from available information, Village Green requires the same lawn mowing as other Kikuyu types.

Village Green Kikuyu Summary

Along with Kenda Kikuyu, Village Green is another quality, worthwhile and welcomed addition to the family of Male Sterile Kikuyu grasses available for Australian homeowners today, and is a massive improvement over common Kikuyu which we can still never recommend be planted in Australia anymore - for any reason.