RESEARCH VIEWS
By Erik H. Ervin, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Editor’s note: This research was funded by the Virginia Turfgrass Foundation and the Virginia Agricultural Council. The report below was originally published in the September/October 2003 issue of Virginia Turfgrass and is reprinted with permission from both the author and the Virginia Turfgrass publisher.
The purpose of this research project was to analyze the effects of mixing growth-regulating compounds with herbicides, with the specific intent to increase bermudagrass control in stands of cool-season grasses. While originally conducted with golf courses foremost in mind, this research is equally applicable for athletic fields, home lawns and sod-production fields.
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TENNESSEE TURFGRASS
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n transition-zone states where both cool-season and warmseason grasses can be grown, many commercial facilities—golf courses, sports fields, campuses and corporate properties—use both types of grasses, often grown relatively close to one another or one overseeded over the other. Golf courses in the warmer regions of the transition zone, for instance, frequently use cool-season grasses such as creeping bentgrass on greens, with bermudagrass on the fairways. During summer months, unfortunately, the strongly stoloniferous bermudagrass tends to encroach into the cool-season grass areas, resulting in poor turf quality and an undesirable contamination situation. Finding a way to selectively control the bermudagrass without damaging the cool-season grass species was a primary goal of this research.
Previous Research and Results Traditionally, non-selective control of bermudagrass has been best obtained with the use of methyl bromide (sold under the trade name Brom-o-Gas®). In 1991, however, the U.S. federal government named methyl bromide as a chemical that contributes to depletion of the earth’s ozone layer, and its complete agricultural phase-out is scheduled for 2005. Glyphosate, a non-selective herbicide sold under such trade names as Roundup® and Touchdown Pro®, has been used extensively to control grasses. However, to obtain desired control, several sequential applications after periods of re-growth are required.
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