2011 NTEP Ky. Bluegrass trial in College Park, MD. With limited or no irrigation over the trial period, the summer of 2016 eliminated most of the entries, with the exception of a few (as seen in the bottom left of this photo - taken in October 2016).

In 2015, creeping bentgrasses generally

outperformed their colonial bentgrass cousins. Tat changed in 2016 with colonial bentgrass entries showing excellent performance at selected sites. For colonial bentgrass, top performer Greentime has some serious competition with Musket and DLFPS- AT/3026 performing well at East Lansing, MI, Lexington, KY and Blacksburg, VA again in 2016. It seems that where the colonial bentgrasses are well adapted, they perform very well. Where colonial bentgrass does not seem to be well adapted, like the Mountain West or southwestern states, those entries fall into the bottom 25 percent of all entries. Te Riverside, CA location utilized a reduced

irrigation level but no significant differences were again noted among the entries. At two ancillary traffic locations, Amherst, MA, and Blacksburg, VA, only the Amherst location showed significant entry separation. For the second year, colonial bentgrass DLFPS-AT/3026 was excellent under the traffic stress at Amherst, finishing in the top statistical group for turf quality along with Piranha, a creeping bentgrass entry. However, turf quality ratings are more than just traffic damage, therefore, traffic tolerance was evaluated three times at the Amherst, MA site. Kingdom and Nightlife achieved the top traffic tolerance scores in the three ratings.

42 Disease resistance is a very important trait for

bentgrasses used on fairways or tees. Two particularly devastating diseases, brown patch and dollar spot were rated at several locations in 2016. Brown patch was noted at two locations during the test period, College Park, MD and Columbia, MO. At the two locations, the creeping bentgrasses overall were mostly tolerant of brown patch infection, with the colonial bentgrass entries showing considerably more brown patch infection. In contrast, dollar spot data showed the colonial

bentgrasses DLFPS-AT/3026, Musket and Greentime with the highest tolerance at three locations. Creeping bentgrass entries Chinook and V-8 showed excellent dollar spot tolerance on most rating dates, but this tolerance seemed to break down toward the end of the season. Other entries showed good tolerance on one or two rating dates, but these results were not consistent across locations.

Low Input Cool-Season In 2015, NTEP established its first

management based trial, with seventeen locations that manage under ‘low input’. Te first trial of this type includes cool-season grass cultivars, experimentals, blends and mixtures of grasses and other species. Tirty-two entries were submitted by sponsors, including single cultivars and blends of Kentucky bluegrass, fine fescue, tall fescue and perennial ryegrass;

TPI Turf News July/August 2017