1,405 acres and counting!

To date, Green Valley Seed has supplied enough grass seed to solar farms to seed 1,405 acres!

Most seed specifications for solar farms do not align with the goals of the task at hand.  For the conditions of a solar farm, you want low growing, drought tolerant, shade tolerant, spreading grasses.  You don’t want ingredients in the seed mix that are going to grow really tall (Autumn Bentgrass, Switchgrass, etc.) or ingredients that are not hardy and can’t survive in shady conditions (Kentucky Bluegrass, Clovers, etc.).  You want grasses that don’t need to be mowed every two weeks. 

That’s why we’ve developed the following mix:

Green Valley Premium Solar Array Mix:

35% Creeping Red Fescue

25% Chewings Fescue

25% Hard Fescue

15% Sheep Fescue

The seeding rate for this mix is 260 – 350 pounds per acre.

All the fine fescues in this mix will only grow so tall before they fall over and lay flat.  They do not have a stiff upright growth pattern like tall fescue. 

Green Valley Seed is able to provide the large amounts of seed required for solar farms in 1,000 pound super sacks or 50 pound bags. 

Mowing around a lot of obstacles on a solar farm is time consuming and costly.  See the pictures below of the year round weed suppression and lack of mowing needed with this mix.  This hillside test plot was planted in August 2019 and has never been mowed.