GRASS SEED
Species selection for greens Joe Hendy, Advance Grass Solutions’ Regional Technical and Seed Product Manager, explains how increasing desirable grass species content in your sward is a key step to sustainable surface management. The modern-day greenkeeper is dealing with climate change and reduced fungicidal solutions, a situation to adapt and prepare for now.
50 | Turf Matters | MARCH-APRIL 2021
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nnual Meadow Grass dominant greens are more susceptible to disease, drought, and thatch production; more so than any of the desirable grass species you may wish to establish. With the explosion of new golfers since the pandemic, improving wear tolerance beyond the limits of annual meadow-grass will be hugely course beneficial. All courses are different, on any one given course, few if any of your greens are the same. Sward composition, construction, environmental factors, vary green to green. Be wary of ‘blanket recommendations’ and be especially wary if the company you are speaking with asks very little, or knows little, about your course. Understanding the species characteristics of each grass is essential prior to decision making. If successful, the resulting sward may directly affect your greens management programme, can you sustain it? Can problem greens be treated differently? Perennial Ryegrass is a hungry plant. Red thread is synonymous with perennial ryegrass in low fertility soils, so nutritional inputs will need to be increased, feeding annual meadow grass alongside. Unlike fescue and bent it does not have regenerative capacity; if you damage the crown it will die. It is a more open sward than that of the fescues and bents. Ground coverage will not be as tight to out compete annual meadow-grass or moss. In the BSPB booklet it’s worth noting that shoot density is comparable within own species. Keep the height of cut at 5mm and above and you have
every chance of perennial ryegrass persisting. 4mm or below and the plant will show signs of stress. Under stress, the plant will be more susceptible to disease and species displacement. Perennial ryegrass is happy in a pH as low as 5.5. People using it will be impressed with its speed of establishment, but perhaps consider the long-term persistence over germination, as a mark of success. Creeping Bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera) The new wave are a result of genome mapping and its said can survive on similar inputs to traditional browntop bentgrass. They do not have the winter purpling effect and are less dormant than their varietal predecessors in the colder months. Golf clubs, with little winter golf, are in a position to get maximum benefit. They have a more aggressive growth habit than traditional browntop bent grasses, therefore, increasing thatch production. Creeping bentgrass cultivars produce creeping surface stems (stolon’s) which can result in a matted sward. Naps have also been known to form, affecting ball roll. This can be rectified with the right cultural regime such as scarification, verticutting and grooming. The BSPB booklet comments that ‘higher management inputs are required to maintain creeping bent grasses’. Comparatively speaking, creeping bentgrass is expensive against browntop bentgrass . It is more tolerant of close mowing; 2-3mm . Always monitor your pH ensuring the range is between 5.5 – 6.5. Sowing a grass species into soil with a pH it doesn’t tolerate, will only result in species displacement. Browntop Bentgrass (Agrostis capilliaris – formally Agrostis tenuis) in the UK is considered the traditional bentgrass of choice. When people talk of bent, or bent fescue greens, the assumption would be browntop bentgrass. Persistent when mown to 4mm, less expensive than other bentgrass options, and with a proven pedigree in the UK market. The BSPB booklet comment’s that ‘the finer and