Question
I am in the early stages of rennovating my lawn.  I have the soil tests and am on target to have the soil in order for early to mid september.  I am researching seed options and am not sure where to find advice.  I have decided on a kentucky bluegrass, fescue, rye mix, pretty standard for this area.  Most of my lawn recieves full sun.  

I like how Scotts advertises their seeds being genetically altered/engineered to withstand these conditions.  A friend at the office mentioned they have had better luck with Rebel brand seed than Scotts.  Do you have experience or resources for seed brand comparisons?  

Thanks in advance for the advice.

Answer
If only this was a simple answer.

My best reference for you would be the NTEP program -- National Turfgrass Evaluation Program.  If you want to check the numbers, go to their website:

www.ntep.org

and look down the column in your state.

A word about Scotts seeds:  Scotts bids on some of the top rated Grasses and mass markets them, usually under their own brand name.  Pennington is one of their competitors, the biggest marketer of Grass Seed in the world.  Pennington hybridizes its own line of Seeds, including a line it has named Rebel.  There are other Seed producers, as well.

Scotts may be using genetic engineering to build tough Grass from the inside out.  There are various views on genetic engineering that I'm sure you are aware of.  What Pennington has done, however, is even more advanced: They have worked with a company that cultures specialized Fungi and identified the perfect Mycorrhizae for their Grass seedlings, then encapsulated the Seeds in a Spore-spiked case.  This is Earth friendly and state of the art.  I can talk all day about Mycorrhizae, but you just really need to know that these are very cutting edge ways to take our new understanding of nutrient capture and Soil Science, and apply them to Grass.

That said, if I had to vote on one of them, I would of course pick the Pennington product.

However, you can find the perfect Grasses for your region at that NTEP website.  Note these are tests that run for a few years before the results are tabulated.  You will not find any test available for 2007 or 2008 for years.  Review the latest results.

THE LONG ISLAND GARDENER