Stem Shape

A stem yarn by nature isn’t necessarily special. You’ll see a lot of grasses out there that have stems down the center of each blade. In most of these cases, that stem is there to help support the erect position of all the blades in a roll of artificial grass and it’s placed there during the extrusion process. Because stems are present in most grasses to improve memory and performance, some sneaky outfits have managed to design stems into grasses at a low cost that don’t actually add any performance value. Then charge performance prices to make a little extra coin each month.

At Purchase Green we have this little thing called honesty. It’s baked into all of our grasses. So we offer two grasses in with Thiolon yarns. Thiolon is a brand of stem yarn that has been around for decades – and has long been recognized as the best yarn in the world when it comes to performance and memory. Thiolon yarns have a fibrous stem that responds to heat by stiffening. Unroll a factory wrapped Southwestern Sod or Nature’s Sod Premier and you can literally watch the blades begin to stand up as the fibers absorb heat from the sun and stiffen.

Production

Thilon was actually produced by the yarn extruder, Tencate, as a sports turf. They didn’t actually produce it just for performance though, that was given. They produced it to be safer and softer for sporting activity like football or soccer. That’s why you’ll see a touch of shine on the Thiolon yarn. Aesthetically, it looks like a beautiful coat of morning dew shine. Functionally it reduces friction from things like falling or sliding. There are number of reasons homeowners go with grasses that have Thiolon yarns:

Color

Thiolon provides for a warm emerald green coloration. Grasses made with it look great when contrasted against beige, tan, or other earth-tone stucco or wood siding because of the brownish/orange hues picked up by the visible thatch. It also looks beautiful against off-whites or Spanish style stuccos. You could bring out some great shades against brick.

Design

With Thiolon yarns, especially in lower face-weights, you’ll get hybrid colors of a Kentucky Blue Grass and Bent Grass. Of course, we’ve mixed in a little Purchase Green style in using a slightly staggered manicure to improve the posture of each blade. This makes it a bit fuller look but leaves a little messiness to produce a more stable, but natural look.

Performance

From the day Thiolon was a little baby in the form of tiny polyethylene beads (pre extrusion) to the day it graduated college (came off the tufting machine) this yarn was designed to perform. All there is to say is that this is the best.