One of the North Carolina producers who has worked with TifBlair is Clarke Wooten of Tri-State Turf in Newton Grove. He's noticed distinct

allelopathic characteristics. "We've planted some areas aside from the turf production plots just for erosion control and for aesthetic reasons, and essentially left it untreated-no fertilizer, insecticide or herbicide. It still made a good stand, and didn't allow weeds to come in. Some scientists believe it manufactures a kind of natural herbicide. That stand has been untouched for years, so there's something there."

Eastern North Carolina soils typically have low pH and require lime for best growth, according to Wooten. However, "Centipede loves a pH of 5 to 5.5, which naturally occurs here, and it's low-growing, so that may be part of the reason it survives well under low-to-no maintenance. I've also observed it in the field growing side-by-side with common centipede, and it definitely retains it color longer in the fall and survives the winter without winter kill compared with the common. The winter and spring of '01 was disastrous to our common centipede. We lost blocks as large as three acres in size; we have photos to support that. The blocks were at different elevations and stages of maturity. TifBlair, however, came through unharmed under the same conditions."