Rolesville, N.C. – There are a plethora of turfgrass varieties available to the golf market, and Turf-Seed is working on improving the newer varieties it has to offer the market. The company demonstrated its testing of turfgrass varieties at its 23rd annual field day (June 17), which is rotated every year between the company’s turfgrass research farms in Oregon and North Carolina. This was the ninth field day in Rolesville.
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The turf farm on which the field day took place opened in 1991. One of the reasons for opening the farm in North Carolina is because brown patch is the biggest problem with tall fescue, of which the company produces many varieties. Oregon, where the company is headquartered, doesn’t have brown patch, so the company opened a facility in Rolesville. The location was chosen because of the high stress to turfgrass caused by the climate.
Areas the company has been working on include: brown patch-resistant tall fescues, Kentucky bluegrasses thriving at 0.5-inches mowing height, perennial ryegrass gray leaf spot resistance, bentgrass trials, Bermudagrass and zoysiagrass trials, glyphosate tolerant grasses, seeded seashore paspalum, fine fescues and wildflowers and ornamental grasses.
“The most dramatic thing we saw was the gray leaf spot damage on perennial ryegrasses from August to October,” says Melodee Fraser, Ph.D., director of research – east. “Most commercially available varieties were killed by gray leaf spot, while a number of Pure-Seed Testing varieties showed good resistance.”
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“Velvets don’t shut down in early winter like creeping bentgrass,” Fraser says. “You really have to stay on top of them because they’re aggressive.”
Sea Spray seashore paspalum is another variety that impressed Fraser. The paspalum has a shade tolerance similar to Bermudagrass, has a brighter color than Bermudagrass and doesn’t have to be fertilized as much as Bermudagrass, according to Fraser.
“It has high density, beautiful color and thrives in our warm, humid summers,” she says.
Additionally, the company’s newest brown patch-resistant tall fescue, Tar Heel II, is showing outstanding salt and shade tolerance and turf performance, Fraser says.
As for bluegrass, the company has several new hybrids with six different species of Poa annua. One of these is P. arachnifera, also known as a Texas bluegrass. These different species, crossed with Kentucky bluegrass, should give benefits such as heat, cold and drought tolerance as well as better disease resistance.
“With the Texas bluegrass, we’re trying to expand the area where bluegrass is accepted,” says Crystal Rose-Fricker, president of Pure-Seed Testing and v.p. of research for Turf-Seed. “We’re making hybrids that have different traits so it’s not a me-too variety.
“The market wants bluegrasses that establish quickly,” she adds. “Some elite bluegrasses don’t establish quickly, but once they’re in, they’re beautiful.”
Even though cool-season grasses are the main focus of the facility, Bermudagrass varieties are grown and tested at the North Carolina farm. Some of the characteristics the company is incorporating into Bermudagrass varieties are low growth habit, high turf density, short internodes, fine leaf texture, low mowing tolerance, high seed yield, winter survivability and salt tolerance. The company has released Savannah, which is available in good quantities; Transcontinental, which has demonstrated improved winter survival; and Sunbird, which was selected for the aggressive growth habit and excellent turf performance.
Market outlook
Producing large quantities of these turfgrasses is done in Oregon and depends on market demand. Gordon Zielinski, c.e.o. of Turf-Seed, says the supplies for tall fescues are better than last year, the market for ryegrass has been high for the past three years and end-users might see a shortage of bluegrass (the Moonlight and Northstar varieties).
Perennial ryegrass acreage has increased over the 2004 crop year, and a good crop for 2005 is anticipated, according to Zielinski.
“Our earlier worries of drought and crop shortages have been eased because we had timely spring rains,” he says.
“Inventories are low going into the 2005 harvest so we expect supplies will be tight after harvest, and the race for getting the new crop ready will be similar to the past two years,” he adds. “We expect fall pricing to remain firm because of tight inventories.”
For the fall, the company is focusing on the strengths of its research efforts and will be introducing its new SaltEase perennial ryegrass blend. This will be anchored using its most salt-tolerant varieties, Gray Star (PST-2LGL) and Brightstar SLT. SaltEase will be a three-way blend that will include, in addition to Gray Star, two of the following varieties: Brightstar SLT, Citation Fore, Charger II or Manhattan 4, according to Zielinski.
Also new for 2005 will be Gray Hawk perennial ryegrass blend. Gray Hawk is a blend resistant to gray leaf spot. Silver Dollar, the company’s top gray leaf spot resistant variety, will be available only for 2005 in this blend.
Additionally, the company produced the first commercial harvest of Sea Spray seashore paspalum in 2004 with limited production acreage. The seed is actually produced in Oregon even though it’s a warm-season grass, and about 100,000 pounds will be produced this fall. Availability for 2005 will be improved, but supplies will still not meet demand, of which 70 percent is from overseas, according to Rick Elyea, director of golf marketing for Turf-Seed and Tee-2-Green.
Because Sea Spray’s special niche for salty conditions, the company is focusing sales to projects that require the salt tolerance.
“Therefore, we are limiting the distribution to only a few companies in each market region so they can focus on its unique qualities,” Zielinski says.
