To determine which grass is best for your lawn, consider your situation.

It's much easier to fit grass to the site rather than trying to alter the site to suit the grass. Altering the site, inevitably, is a losing battle.

If you have full sun over the entire area, any of our warm-season grasses will perform well. Bermuda grass needs full sun for most of the day; the other four types can tolerate varying amounts of shade.

Seashore paspalum and centipede grass are moderately shade tolerant, all varieties of zoysia (especially emerald) are very shade tolerant, and St. Augustine can withstand the deepest shade.

The next consideration is your preference of texture (width of the leaf blades). This will determine the general appearance of the turf, mowing height and even the best kind of lawn mower to use. Fine-textured (narrow bladed) types are Bermuda grass, seashore paspalum and emerald zoysia. The recommended mowing height for these is Ñ-inch to fl-inch, which requires a reel type lawn mower. Mowing above one inch gives a spongy, tufty look to these turfs and increases the chances of scalping the lawn.

Medium-textured (wider bladed) grasses include El Toro zoysia and Z3 zoysia. Mowing height can vary from fi-inch to 1ý inches. You will need a reel mower for cuts below 1 inch, or a rotary type mower for cuts of an inch and taller.

Reel mowers are more expensive to buy and maintain and less maneuverable than the rotary mowers. (I will discuss mowing in more detail in a future article).

Coarse-textured species are Centipede grass and St. Augustine grass. Centipede should be cut 1 to 2 inches and St. Augustine at 2 to 3 inches. Lower mowing will result in a sparse lawn, and weeds eventually will take over. Both require a rotary mower, and in the case of St. Augustine, a heavy-duty model gives best results.

Here are a few other characteristics to consider when choosing the right lawn:

• Common Bermuda grass, commonly called manienie in Hawai'i, can be grown from seed and is of a lower quality than the hybrids. In the past decade, improved cultivars of common Bermuda have become available. These have better qualities of density and texture but still do not compare to their hybrid cousins.

Hybrid Bermuda grasses must be planted vegetatively. They have a high nitrogen fertilizer requirement and an over-all high maintenance demand. All Bermudas exhibit high traffic tolerance (they wear well and recover quickly), good water use efficiency, and have a medium salt tolerance and low shade tolerance. Good hybrid choices for home lawns are Sunturf, Tifway, Tifway II or Tifgreen. One of the more popular improved seeded common varieties is Princess 77. The dwarf and super dwarf varieties are best used for golf greens and not home lawns.

• There are three popular zoysia grasses used for home lawns in Hawai'i: the medium-textured El Toro and Z3 and the fine-textured Emerald zoysia. A recently introduced seeded variety called Zenith has shown some promise. All have a very high wear tolerance. But they are slow-growing, particularly Z3 and Emerald. Therefore, if they do get worn down, the recovery period can be a long one.

All have medium salt tolerance and good shade tolerance. The Emerald zoysia builds thatch rapidly and forms small mounds, which eventually results in scalping when mowed. Periodic dethatching is needed to remedy this condition.

• The most outstanding quality of seashore paspalum is its very high salt tolerance. It also has the unusual quality of withstanding extended periods of water submersion while also being very drought tolerant, having the lowest water use requirement for normal growth. On the down side is the rapid thatch buildup and annual requirement for dethatching. It is also sensitive to many common herbicides used to control broadleaf and grassy weeds. However, a strong salt solution can be used in place of herbicides.

• Centipede grass can be grown from seed. The texture is coarser than El Toro zoysia. It has a rather low salt tolerance, low traffic tolerance and a higher water use requirement. On the good side, it needs very little fertilization once established and is slow growing. It is easily trimmed around sidewalks and shrubs and may need to be mowed only every two to three weeks in the winter.

• St. Augustine grass has a very coarse texture, is very shade tolerant and has a high salt tolerance. The large thick runners (stolons) can form an underlying layer several inches thick in the thatch that gives the turf a soft, spongy feel. A heavy-duty rotary mower is a must.