SCANGREEN: TURFGRASS SPECIES AND VARIETIES FOR INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT OF SCANDINAVIAN PUTTING GREENS, 2019-2022

• To create meeting places for discussions between plant breeders, seed companies and greenkeepers in order to encourage variety awareness, integrated pest management and continued efforts in turfgrass breeding for high-latitude environments.

TALKS AT CONFERENCES, SEMINARS, MEETINGS ETC. IN 2022

5 April: Internal course for NIBIO evaluators at SCANGREEN Landvik on disease assessment.

19 May: ERFA-treff and meeting at SCANGREEN Apelsvoll. Field walk by Jørgen Hornslien and Pia Heltoft. Presentations by Pia Heltoft and Karin J. Hesselsøe.

9 June: Visit by NIBIO Dept. of Cereals and Seed crop in SCANGREEN trial, Landvik

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR / CONTACT PERSON

Pia Heltoft, Norwegian Institute for Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO), Turfgrass research group, Nylinna 218, 2849 Kapp, E-mail: pia.heltoft@nibio.no

CO-APPLICANTS

Bjarni Hannesson, Reykjavik Golf Club, Iceland.

Karin Normann, Turfhouse, Denmark.

Per Rasmussen, Smørum GC, Denmark.

Michelle DaCosta, University of Massachusetts, USA.

Eric Watkins and Andrew Hollman, University of Minnesota, USA.

Karin Juul Hesselsøe, Trygve S. Aamlid, Tatsiana Espevig, Trond Petterson and Jørgen Hornslien, NIBIO, Norway.

Project Objectives

• To screen in the field and clarify which varieties of Agrostis, Festuca, Poa and Lolium are most winter-hardy, most stress-tolerant and most disease-resistant on putting greens at four experimental sites representing the two major climate zones in the Nordic countries.

10-15 July: ITRC in Copenhagen: ‘Poa trivialis, Lolium perenne or Poa annua as nurse crops for faster establishment of Agrostis stolonifera putting greens in Nordic climates’. Poster by Pia Heltoft.

10-15 July: ITRC in Copenhagen: ‘Seed mixtures of red fescue and colonial, creeping or velvet bentgrass for pesticide-free management of Nordic golf greens’. Oral presentation by Karin J. Hesselsøe.

13 July: ITRC fieldtrip to SCANGREEN Smørum.

22 Sept.: Students from Danish Greenkeepers College visiting SCANGREEN Landvik.

16 Nov.: Danish Greenkeepers Association Yearly Conference at Slettestrand, Denmark. Presentations by Per Rasmussen and Karin J. Hesselsøe.

17 Nov.: ERFA-treff/field walk at Smørum with Danish greenkeepers and Micah Woods.

May-October at SCANGREEN Smørum: Several individual visits from Danish greenkeepers, DLF and Barenbrug/Semenco.

June-September at SCANGREEN Iceland: Several ‘snapps’ (Snapchat) from Bjarni Hannesson to Icelandic greenkeepers. One visit from Icelandic greenkeepers.

Project Summary And Status As Of 1 January 2023

In SCANGREEN 2019-22, species and varieties were tested at NIBIO Apelsvoll, Norway, and Reykjavik GC, Iceland, in the northern zone, and NIBIO Landvik, Norway, and (since 2021) Smørum GC, Denmark, in the southern zone. There were other trial sites in Massachusetts and Minnesota, USA.

In the 2019-22 test round, 30 new varieties and 24 controls representing eight species were tested. Seed mixtures with alternative combinations of bentgrass and fescue were tested in the southern zone.

For species, the results showed that, across all sites and years, creeping bentgrass was best overall, followed closely by chewings fescue and slender creeping red fescue. At Landvik, creeping bentgrass was significantly better than the other species, while at Smørum chewings fescue made the best overall impression. At Apelsvoll, Kentucky bluegrass performed best, closely followed by the fescues. In Iceland, velvet bentgrass performed slightly better than creeping or colonial bentgrass.

Among varieties of chewings fescue (Festuca rubra ssp. commutata), across all sites and years the new variety ‘EuroCarina’ performed best, followed by the new varieties ‘Gima’ and ‘Torona’ in line with the two control varieties ‘Musica’ and ‘Barlineus’. Among varieties of slender creeping red fescue (Festuca rubra ssp. littoralis), across all sites and years the control variety ‘Cezanne’ performed best, followed by the new varieties ‘Sybille’ and ‘Coptic’, but differences were small. Interestingly, dollar spot was found on the fescues at Smørum, with the highest incidence in slender creeping red fescues. The new American variety ‘Sea Mist’ showed higher resistance to dollar spot than other varieties of slender creeping red fescue at Smørum.

Among varieties of creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera), the new varieties ‘Matchplay’ and ‘L-93 XD’ performed best across all sites and years. In the southern zone, attacks of microdochium patch were highest in ‘Pure Select’.

For the mixtures at SCANGREEN, preliminary results showed that a mixture of red fescue and creeping bentgrass had higher turfgrass quality and less microdochium patch than the traditional mixture of red fescue and colonial bentgrass. To retain a balanced proportion of fescue, this mixture should receive no more than 110 kg N/ha/yr and have mowing height of 5 mm.

Detailed information on the 2019-22 results will be published in a scientific NIBIO report, at www.scanturf.org and in the final project report to STERF in spring 2023.