There is a moment about three weeks into establishing a Kentucky Bluegrass lawn where most people decide they have been sold a dud. The soil is bare, a few thin blades are up, and the bag said nothing about this. I want to deal with that expectation head-on, because Midnight Kentucky Bluegrass is one of the better cultivars you can put in a home lawn — and almost every complaint I hear about it is really a complaint about timing. Here is the honest picture, built entirely from what Outsidepride publishes on the product page.
What Midnight actually is
Midnight is a compact-type Kentucky Bluegrass cultivar, grown in the Willamette Valley in Oregon and sold by Outsidepride coated with OptiGrowth. Outsidepride calls it the most popular bluegrass in America, and lists more than 15 years of proven performance behind it.
The characteristics they publish for it:
- A very dark blue-green colour with fine leaf blades
- Dwarf growth habit — fewer mowings, lower maintenance cost
- Very high tiller density, producing a thick carpet
- Drought tolerance from a deep root system, plus good heat tolerance
- Strong overall disease resistance
- Good tolerance to close mowing
On disease specifically, Outsidepride names leaf spot, stem rust, stripe smut and dollar spot as the problems Midnight resists, and notes that university trials have documented its heat and drought tolerance.
Pricing — and the bag size most people get wrong
Midnight is sold in four sizes, all OptiGrowth coated:
| Size | Price | Cost per pound |
|---|---|---|
| 5 lbs | $24.99 | $5.00 |
| 10 lbs | $44.99 | $4.50 |
| 25 lbs | $119.99 | $4.80 |
| 50 lbs | $234.99 | $4.70 |
Look at that third column again, because it does not do what you expect. The 10 lb bag is the cheapest per pound at $4.50 — cheaper than the 25 lb bag at $4.80 and cheaper than the 50 lb bag at $4.70. Buying bigger does not save you money here.
The practical takeaway: if you need 25 lbs, two 10 lb bags plus a 5 lb bag costs $114.97 against $119.99 for the single 25 lb bag. If you need 50 lbs, five 10 lb bags costs $224.95 against $234.99. Check your shipping before you commit either way — more on that below, because it is the one place this can go sideways.
How much you actually need
Outsidepride publishes the seeding rates clearly:
- New turf: 2 - 3 lbs per 1,000 sq ft, or 80 - 120 lbs per acre
- Overseeding: 1 - 1.5 lbs per 1,000 sq ft, or 40 - 60 lbs per acre broadcast
So a 10 lb bag establishes roughly 3,300 to 5,000 sq ft of new lawn, or overseeds roughly 6,600 to 10,000 sq ft. For a typical suburban front and back lawn, one or two 10 lb bags is the realistic order.
Growing conditions
Midnight performs in sandy or heavy clay soils, and like all bluegrasses it does best at a soil pH between 5.5 and 8.0. That is a genuinely wide window — most lawns will already sit inside it.
Fertility is where it asks more of you. Outsidepride recommends 3 to 5 lbs of nitrogen per 1,000 sq ft per year, with a balanced 3:1:2 NPK ratio plus sulphur. They do add a useful qualifier: because Midnight's dark colour is genetic rather than fertiliser-driven, lower rates still yield acceptable colour. That is a real saving over the life of the lawn.
Mowing height is 1/2 to 2 inches — an unusually low floor, and the reason Midnight turns up on golf courses and athletic fields alongside home lawns.
Planting window
Sow when soil temperature reaches 55°F in spring, and no later than eight weeks before your first frost in autumn. That eight-week buffer is not padding; it is the establishment time the grass needs before cold shuts it down.
Three honest drawbacks
- Establishment is slow, and the page gives two different numbers. The product summary says to allow 4 - 5 weeks for establishment. The detailed section says Midnight requires about 3 weeks for complete germination, and that in good weather with soil above 65°F you should expect 3 to 4 weeks for a complete stand. Either way, plan for the better part of a month of bare-looking ground. One verified Trustpilot reviewer comparing cultivars notes their Supreme "came right up within days" while "the Midnight is taking a bit longer." If you need fast cover, this is the wrong grass — and the discrepancy between the two stated figures is something Outsidepride should tidy up.
- Shipping can undo the seed savings. Two separate verified reviewers raise this. One in Kansas describes the shipping from Oregon as "a bit much" while still saying they would buy again. Another found that ordering two 50 lb bags separately was cheaper than ordering them together. Price the shipping before you finalise the basket, and test splitting the order — that is unusual advice, but it comes from the customers, not from me.
- It is a cool-season grass, with the seasonal behaviour that implies. A verified reviewer in Maine reports it turns brown over winter and greens back up once snow melts. That is normal for Kentucky Bluegrass, but if you are shopping for year-round colour in a warm-season region, Midnight is not the answer. It also carries a real fertiliser appetite at 3 - 5 lbs N per 1,000 sq ft annually — this is a manicured-lawn grass, not a low-input one.
One more thing worth flagging honestly: unlike some other Outsidepride listings, this page does not publish a structured tolerance table, so there is no stated figure for shade tolerance. Kentucky Bluegrass is generally not a strong shade grass, but I will not put a number on something the retailer has not published. If your lawn is heavily shaded, ask their support team before ordering.
Who should buy it
Buy Midnight if you are in a cool-season zone, you want the darkest green a lawn can reasonably be, and you are willing to feed and mow it properly. It is an excellent choice for high-traffic lawns and for anyone who mows short — the 1/2 inch floor and high tiller density are a genuinely strong combination. It also blends well: Outsidepride notes compatibility with other dark, low-growing bluegrasses, strong creeping red fescues, and improved "II" and "III" series turf-type perennial ryegrasses.
Who should not
Skip it if you need cover in days rather than weeks, if you are in a warm-season region, if your lawn is deeply shaded, or if you are specifically trying to build a low-input, low-fertiliser lawn. For that last group, a clover-based approach suits the goal better than a premium bluegrass cultivar does.
The verdict
Midnight is a well-documented, long-proven cultivar sold at a fair price by a retailer that publishes its seeding rates, fertility recommendations and mowing heights openly — which is more than many seed sellers do. The colour and density claims are the reason it stays popular, and the disease resistance list is specific enough to be checkable.
My recommendation: buy the 10 lb bag, because it is the cheapest per pound regardless of how much you need, and buy in enough quantity for the seeding rate rather than economising. Then leave it alone for four weeks. The lawns that fail with this seed are almost always the ones that got reseeded in week two out of impatience.
Where to buy
Check current Midnight Kentucky Bluegrass prices at Outsidepride
Outsidepride ships next business day and carries over 1,500 seed varieties, including a state-by-state grass selection guide worth using before you order. You can also see the offers we track on our Outsidepride store page, or go direct to the official Outsidepride store to price shipping to your address.
Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you buy through them we may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. All prices, specifications and customer review quotes were taken from the retailer's own product page at the time of writing and may change.
