Winter damage to Bermudagrass at Lakeside Memorial Golf Course in the spring of 2021. (Photo: Mike Buxton)
the National Turf Evaluation Program NTEP began a new experiment on seeded and vegetated bermudagrass in 2019. One of the northernmost and coldest sites, Wichita, Kansas, is a Kansas State University experiment station.
The research team maintains bermudagrass varieties that are seeded and planted as golf rough or sports fields. Researchers established 6-by-6-foot plots on July 9 and 10, 2019, and testing included 13 seeded bermuda plant entries and 22 vegetative accessions.
A lightweight cover protects the seed pieces until germination is complete. During the remainder of the year, urea (46-0-0) fertilization was applied on August 7 at 1.0 lb nitrogen per 1,000 sq ft and August 21 at 0.5 lb nitrogen per 1,000 sq ft. Once established, weekly mowing was 2.25 to 2.75 inches throughout the growing season. Irrigation was applied at a rate of 1.0 inch per event as necessary to prevent dormancy. In March 2020, the research team applied a pre-emergent herbicide and 1.0 pounds of nitrogen per 1,000 square feet of urea in May.
The research team collected percent coverage data in July, August and September 2019 (visually graded from 0 to 100 percent), and on May 5, 2020, spring green was visually graded (1 = brown, 6 = acceptable color and 9 = perfect green). color).
Initial cover classification found that species classified DLF-460/3048 and JSC 2013-55 and plant species MSB-1017 and MSB-1042 had the highest percentage cover. In August, varieties classified DLF-460/3048, JSC 2013-55, PST-R6TM, Sun Queen (PST-R6MM) and plant types MSB-1017 and MSB-1042 had the highest coverage. By the end of the 2019 growing season, cultivars seeded Sun Queen, DLF-460/3048 and PST-R6TM and plant types MSB-1017, MSB-1048 and OKC1666 had the highest coverage.
The Spring 2020 Green Edition revealed the green Latitude 36, rated OKS2015-7 and OKS2015-1, which broke dormancy the earliest and received the highest green rating. Across the coldest test sites (Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Virginia), overall average spring greens included Tahoma 31, OKS2015-3, Latitude 36, Tiftuf, FB 1628, OKS2015-7, Astro , JSC 2013-85, JSC 2013-105, MSB-1026, JSC 2013-125 and OKC1666 in the higher statistical group (>6.0 on a scale of 1 = brown and 9 = completely green).
References
Parsons, Linda; Griffin, Jason J.; and Chilton, Michael J. (2020) “2019 National Turfgrass Assessment Program Bermudagrass Test: Facility Data“, Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station Research Reports: Vol. 6: Issue. 7.