2016 NTEP St. Augustinegrass Trial in Griffin, GA. Note the variability in rate of spread and color among the entries.

at university sites, four on golf courses) felt up to the challenge and the trial was born. One of the goals of the trial is to maintain

consistent putting green speeds of at least 9 feet on the stimpmeter. Tis speed is adequate for most mid-level public and private courses where reduced maintenance inputs and costs are necessary for the course to be profitable. How to maintain that speed is up to the site manager (or golf course superintendent), but a set of guidelines were developed to help manage the trial. In addition, it was determined that since some locations could suffer winter kill each year, turf covers would be provided to those locations and would be used a standard maintenance practice (adopting what a mid-level golf course may do to protect their investment). Te use of covers came into focus the first winter, with the severe cold temperatures. As explained last year, despite the covers that

were used at several locations, winter injury from 2013- 14 was significant at some locations. Tis winter injury caused NTEP to replant some or all entries at four locations in summer 2014. Terefore, establishment data collected during the trials’ first year (2013), was collected again at several locations in 2014. And several trial locations did not establish properly, or were set back by the winter of 2013, therefore, not a great amount of quality, density, disease and ball roll data could be collected during the first two years. Te winter of 2014- 15 was also colder than normal in some locations, which delayed some entry development and hence, collection of some of the more advanced data parameters. Also, various issues led to the unfortunate abandonment of the trial at Tequesta, FL. MSB-264 and MSB-285, experimentals from

Mississippi State University continued to perform well, finishing in the top statistical group for turf quality at

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five and six (of nine) locations, respectively. 11-T-861 also performed well, finishing in the top statistical group at five locations, but only the southern sites. Other experimentals such as 08-T-18, OKC-13-78-5 and JK 110521 demonstrated good turf quality at several locations, with top statistical group performance at four sites. Significant differences in genetic color, density, leaf texture and fall color retention were noted among entries, which largely led to the quality ratings separation. For zoysia in 2016, several experimental entries,

particularly from the Texas A&M-Dallas (DALZ) University research program, produced turf quality that rivaled many of the bermudagrasses. DALZ 1308, one of the best zoysia entries in 2015, showed consistent performance in 2016 with top statistical group finishes in eight of nine trial locations. DALZ 1306 and DALZ 1307 also performed well with top statistical groupings at eight and seven locations, respectively. Performing well enough to gain the top statistical group at five locations in 2016 include DALZ 1309, DALZ 1304 and ZOYSIU. Te two seashore paspalum entries again showed

excellent establishment and reasonable quality. As in 2015, UGS 143 and the standard entry SeaDwarf performed very similarly at almost locations in 2016. Also, as expected, both seashore paspalum entries died at the northern locations of Lexington, KY and Bloomington, IN. Ball roll measurements were collected at several

locations in 2016. However, most locations did not record ball roll distances that met our minimum threshold of about 100 inches of roll (250 cm) using the stimpmeter (on at least one rating date). Mississippi State, MS was the only location to achieve ball roll distances on bermuda of at least 100 inches on any rating date. Te bermuda entries Tifeagle, FAES 1302, Mini-Verde, Tifdwarf and CTF-B10 delivered 100-inch ball rolls on both rating dates.

TPI Turf News July/August 2017