Grass Variety Differences

Seminar at University of Tennessee

At Hawaii . . . More About Salt Applications to Seashore Paspalum

I was at the ATC Research Area this afternoon and was struck again by the dramatic differences in quality between the different grass varieties, particularly between the putting green bermudagrasses. I'm standing here on bermudagrass plots, and the different colors are the differences between the grasses. Whether we look at leaf texture, color, stand density and algal invasion, ball roll, or susceptibility to bermudagrass white leaf, there are some striking differences between the grasses we have planted side by side here north of Bangkok.

One interesting thing we have observed, first on fairway height bermudagrass and now on putting green height bermudagrass, is that the bermudagrass white leaf infection seems to be variety-specific; some varieties are very prone to this infection, and others seem not to get the infection at all. Because the bermudagrass white leaf infection cannot be controlled with pesticides, it is important to choose a grass variety that is relatively resistant to this unsightly problem. In this photo (taken at the research area on 18 March 2009), note how the Novotek bermudagrass at left has none of the white leaf infection, even though it is adjacent to a heavily infected plot of what we think is a mutated selection from TifGreen 328.

We see huge differences in turfgrass performance when we grow the grasses here at our research area. It is very informative to view the performance of these grasses as they grow side-by-side.