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| Web URL(s): | http://archive.lib.msu.edu/tic/rpr/1990/24835,%20Colorado%20State,%20Cuany.PDF
Last checked: 12/09/2013
Requires: PDF Reader |
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| Publication Type:
| Report |
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| Material Type: | Manuscript |
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| Monographic Author(s): | Cuany, Robin L.; Koski, Anthony; Thor, Gary L. |
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| Author Affiliation: | Principal Investigator |
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| Monograph Title: | Development of Dryland Western Turfgrass Cultivars: [1990 Annual Research Report], 1990. |
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| Publishing Information: | Fort Collins, Colorado: Departments of Agronomy and Horticulture, Colorado State University |
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| # of Pages: | 17 |
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| Collation: | 17 pp. |
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| Abstract/Contents: | "The Colorado State University project went a stage further in the developing of turfgrass varietal material of three western-adapted species: alkaligrass, blue grama, and fairway (crested) wheatgrass. In all these grasses we have been looking at plant type in the spaced-plant nurseries, seed productivity and other seed traits, and exercising our best efforts to produce enough seed for the multiplication stage and the early verification of turf behavior and quality. Since all these grasses are (purposely) different from Kentucky bluegrass or bermudagrass, they have different appearance and modified needs for cultural practices, in addition to being adapted to specialized uses such as saline soils, low water inputs, or reduced grooming. These grasses are not highly domesticated and they are not suitable for use on greens, but two of them are suitable for fairways and low-maintenance roughs, while the fairway crested wheatgrass is probably more suitable for roughs than the modern close-cut fairways on golf courses. Alkaligrass nurseries produced less seed in their second full-season year than their first, some of the loss being from plants becoming senescent, i.e. not truly perennial. This could be solved by more frequent establishment of seed fields as is done for annual crops. Our selections have been for the best surviving plants of Eurasian and Western U.S. sources and several promising lines are in production and in turf tests. Alkaligrass is salt-tolerant, not very drought resistant, and exhibits summer dormancy from hot weather regardless of water status, but as a cool-season grass it greens up very early (late March, before bluegrass) and retains color well into winter. We have lines which are much more resistant to rust than cultivar Fults. Blue grama is a warm-season grass, green from late April till frost, and shows an attractive apple-green color under 1-2" mowing and very limited water. In order to show sufficiently dense turf it needs to be seeded at 2 to 2.8 lb. per 1000 sq. ft. and the chief breeding objective is to increase the seed harvestable from a plant or a field. Blue grama has a low seed fertility (viable seed per spikelet are often less than 10%) so we have selected the best parents for seed traits and are preparing a large recombination block for 1991 seed production. Other blocks have been planted to explore the narrow-leaf trait shown by a few plants, and a June 1990 turf test shows Western material of the "Elite" type to have a darker green than the cultivar Hachita. Fairway crested wheatgrass (the common name for Agropyron crisatum) has been surveyed in several nurseries totalling [totaling] over 1,000 plants, which showed considerable variation in leaf width, tendency to put out one or two rhizomatous shoots, and incidence of a summer clump-disease causing lodging of seed-stalks. Selections were made for the narrower leaves and/or the more rhizomes, within the healthy group, and recombinations will set seed in 1991. Previous turf trials have shown this grass will not adapt to a 3-cut per week regime at 3/4" when not irrigated, but will do so with some supplemental water. It is best at 1 1/2 - 2" mowing and probably fits best into roughs. Our seed harvest was damaged by hail but we hope we have enough seed for a small-plot turf test to be planted in April 1991. Cooperative testing here continued with new plots of sprigged buffalograss and seeded bermudagrass in June 1990, materials from Nebraska and Oklahoma respectively, also Numex 'Sahara'." |
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| Language: | English |
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| References: | 0 |
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| See Also: | See also related summary article "Development of dryland western turfgrass cultivars" 1990 Annual Turfgrass Research Report [USGA/GCSAA], 1990, pp. 5-6, R=24835. R=24835 |
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| Note: | "1990 Annual Research Report"
"November 14, 1990"
Tables |
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| ASA/CSSA/SSSA Citation (Crop Science-Like - may be incomplete):
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| Web URL(s):
http://archive.lib.msu.edu/tic/rpr/1990/24835,%20Colorado%20State,%20Cuany.PDF
Last checked: 12/09/2013
Requires: PDF Reader |
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