Our team of Managers make regular visits to the Willamette Valley in Oregon to stay up to date on the process it takes to bring sod quality turf seed to plant in our fields. Larry LeMay, our President and seed buyer, makes this same trip annually to inspect seed growing fields and varieties available for the upcoming harvest.
The turf seed process starts with genetically crossing hundreds of promising varieties to select the “best of the best” for drought tolerance, color, leaf texture, cold tolerance, and disease resistance. The most reputable Willamette Valley farmers are contracted to grow these “best of the best” varieties with inspections occurring by the seed vendor throughout the growing season. Once harvested, chaff and other plant seeds are removed from the mixture with a machine that fills a building and contains a dozen different screens for sifting out impurities. Once bagged, Oregon State is sent samples of each seed lot for purity testing and germination rate. A second purity test is often performed by a private lab before the seed is ready for shipment to A-G Sod Farms.
