acceptable lawn quality level at any ETo
level in Logan, with
many falling below even the minimally acceptable quality score for low maintenance (5.0). Tis trend continued in 2020, except a few bluegrass entries did finish with turf quality averages of at least 5.0. Under the 40 percent ETo
regime,
Dauntless, NAI-13-14, and PST-K13-137 finished at 5.0 or 5.1 in turf quality. Under the 60 percent ETo
level, those same
entries were at or above 5.0, also with PST-K13-141 and PST-K11-118 (6.0). At 80 percent ETo
, only PST-K13-141,
Dauntless, and NAI-13-14 finished above 5.0. Tall fescues again performed better overall than
. Tall fescue entries Kingdom, Tor, and PST-5SDS finished with the highest turfgrass quality under the 40 percent ETo
replacement with season average turfgrass
quality scores of 6.6, 6.5, and 6.4 respectively. Also noteworthy is that the turf quality scores of those three tall fescue entries did not fall below acceptable (6.0) for any of the last eight weeks of the drought ‘season.’ Te story with the 2020 Fort Collins, CO, data
was 1) statistical significance was very small, and 2) no entries delivered acceptable turfgrass quality scores (6.0 or
above), even under the optimum 80 percent ETo replacement level. All entries struggled under 40 percent ETo
PST-5SDS had the highest average turf quality at 4.3. Te 60 percent ETo
replacement as tall fescues DLFPS 321/3677 and level did deliver one tall fescue entry
(Tunderstruck) with a minimally acceptable average score of 5.0. Several tall fescues, but no Kentucky bluegrass finished with a minimally acceptable average quality under 80 percent ETo
replacement. Te best tall fescues under this
level were PST-5SDS (5.5), DLFPS 321/3679 (5.4), Kingdom (5.4), and Tor (5.4). Data collection is complete with this trial and all
data is available on our website. A new cool-season trial, focusing on grasses for fairway turf, mainly bentgrass and fineleaf fescue, is co-funded with USGA and was established in fall 2022. Eighteen total entries, encompassing creeping and colonial bentgrass, hard fescue, chewings fescue, strong creeping red fescue, and perennial ryegrass were established at five sites, two under rainout shelters and three in field sites with deficit irrigation (ETo
)
levels. A minimum percent green cover threshold of 75 percent was utilized during the drought ‘season’ to determine re-watering at the rainout shelter locations, thus allowing for a water needs rate for each entry. Tree deficit irrigation levels, representing high (optimum - 80 percent ETo
), medium (sub-optimum - 65 percent ETo ), and low
(severe restriction - 50 percent ETo) were instituted at the three deficit ETo
for 100 -120 days in 2023. Data was collected and submitted in 2023 from St. Paul, MN, Ft. Collins, CO (ETo
54 sites. Te irrigation regimes were utilized
sites), and West Lafayette, IN (shelter site). Since establishment was not sufficient by the summer of 2023, no data was submitted by Logan, UT (ETo
Tese perennial ryegrass entries are undergoing greenhouse screening for salinity tolerance.
(shelter) sites. Under the rainout shelter at West Lafayette, IN,
several of the bentgrass, and the two perennial ryegrass entries required 33-56 percent less water than all the fine fescues to maintain 75 percent green cover throughout the drought ‘season’. And the top bentgrasses required 22-31 percent less water than the highest water using bentgrasses. Te creeping bentgrass entries with the highest quality and least water used include Piranha (135.3 mm, 5.3 inches), 777 (152.7 mm, 6.0 inches), AU Victory (156.7 mm, 6.1 inches), Oakley (156.7 mm, 6.1 inches) and T-1 (161.0 mm, 6.3 inches). Te colonial bentgrass cultivar Musket and perennial ryegrass SR 4650 also delivered high quality with less water than most other entries: 152.3 mm (6.0 inches) and 148.3 mm (5.8 inches), respectively. Te highest water using entries, PPG FRC 127 and Compass II chewings fescue, and Navigator III strong creeping red fescue needed 232 - 305 mm (9.3 - 12 inches) of water to maintain 75 percent green cover. Despite the differences in water use in 2023, almost all the bentgrass entries performed statistically equal, and only Piranha demonstrated a significant statistical difference in water use over all the fine fescue entries. In the first year of reduced irrigation at St. Paul,
MN, the bentgrass entries, overall, provided the highest quality. Several entries delivered a mean turfgrass quality rating of 7.0 or higher, which is the NTEP threshold for higher quality turf. Under both the medium (65 percent ETo
) and low (50 percent ETo ) irrigation replacement
) and Amherst, MA levels, 007XL, MacDonald, DLF-AP-3084, 777, Oakley, TPI Turf News July/August 2024
Kentucky bluegrass at Logan as several entries maintained lawn turfgrass acceptable quality (6.0+) under 40 percent ETo
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