an acceptable quality rating in week 10. Over the twenty- week drought stress period, FB 1628, TifTuf, Tifway, Tahoma 31, and Dog Tuff had statistically equal overall turf quality averages. At College Station, TX, the entries also performed
surprisingly well under the 30 percent ETo level with
several finishing at turf quality 6.0+. TifTuf, Tahoma 31, and Tifway bermudagrasses, along with Meyer zoysia, were the only entries in the top statistical group to maintain at least a 6.0 quality score on each rating date across the twenty-week trial period. Similarly, Las Cruces, NM, Approach 2 data showed four entries, TifTuf, FB 1628, Tifway, and Tahoma 31, with a 6.2 or higher average turf quality rating. TifTuf was the only entry to maintain a minimum quality score over seventeen weeks, falling just below 6.0 on the final rating date.
Drought conditions impact all turfgrasses. Tis photo shows drought stress on a tall fescue lawn in the fall at a park recreation area in Silver Spring, Maryland.
at Lexington ranged as high as 423.3 mm (16.6 inches), the highest turf quality ratings did not always correlate with the lowest water use. Dog Tuff had the highest overall turfgrass quality score (6.1), but used 160.7 mm of water, which was significantly more than the best entries, and in the middle of all entries. At Jay, FL, besides TifTuf, zoysias Stellar (8.3
mm) and FAES 1307 (29.7 mm), bermuda entries FB 1628 (29.7 mm), Tahoma 31 (34 mm), and Tifway (46.3 mm), and Prestige buffalograss (55.3 mm) finished in the top statistical group. Curiously, Stellar was one of the least water using entries at Jay, FL, but one of the greatest water users at Lexington, KY, (339 mm). As mentioned above, the Ft. Lauderdale site ran
their Approach 2 trial from mid-December 2019 to the end of July 2020 (about 33 weeks). Te buffalograss entries did not acclimate to the south Florida climate and died before irrigation treatments could be initiated. Besides the demise of the buffalograss, the surprising result from 2020 was how well the entries performed even at the 30 percent ETo
all entries had scores at or above the minimum acceptable quality level of 6 under the 30 percent ETo
only Approach 2 site that saw this result, and while being totally unexpected, may require a rethinking of irrigation requirements for south Florida. Since severely reducing irrigation did not significantly affect these entries, most entries finished in the top statistical group, with Tifway (TQ=7.0), FB 1628 (6.9), Tahoma 31 (6.8), and TifTuf (6.8) as the top four. Te Riverside, CA, Approach 2 location, 2,600
miles away and a Mediterranean climate, posted much different results from the subtropical Ft. Lauderdale site. No entry finished with the minimum overall turf quality average of 6.0 under 30 percent ETo
replacement. Several
entries, however, did maintain acceptable quality for up to nine weeks into the stress period, with only TifTuf posting
46
Buffalograss Tere has not been sufficient interest to start a new
buffalograss trial, therefore, the data that we compiled from 2002-2006 is the most recent we have available. Considering the four years of data from the 2002 trial, cultivar performance depended mainly on geographical location. Te vegetative cultivar Density had high quality ratings in the southern locations of Tucson, AZ, Riverside, CA, and Dallas, TX, with lower turfgrass quality ratings, relative to other entries, at more northern locations. Legacy, another vegetative entry, had the highest quality rating at Logan, UT, Manhattan, KS, and Lincoln, NE. Several seeded entries again performed well during the trial period, with Tech Turfgrass 1 and Bowie each performing well at more than one location. In addition, Tech Turfgrass 1, Density, and SWI 2000 were consistently the fastest to establish. A few buffalograss cultivars have been released
replacement. On most turf quality rating dates, . Tis is the
since our last NTEP trial was initiated, two of those cultivars are from the University of Nebraska. Prestige is a commercially available vegetative cultivar released in 2003. And most recently, the University of Nebraska released the seeded cultivar Sundancer.
Centipedegrass Centipedegrass performs well in the more
acidic, dense soils of the southeast U.S. and does so with probably the least maintenance required of any warm- season species. Curiously though, improved centipedegrass cultivars have been slow to become commercialized. In fact, NTEP has never tested centipedegrass due to the lack of a significant number of cultivars available. Seeded centipedegrass cultivars are dwarfed in the marketplace by common centipede, the major centipedegrass seed sold. One of the few improved cultivars, TifBlair, reportedly more cold-tolerant than other cultivars, has been commercialized within the last several years.
Kevin Morris is executive director of the National Turfgrass Evaluation Program (NTEP). All photos by Kevin Morris unless otherwise noted.
TPI Turf News July/August 2021
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