ance must be achieved between resistance
to this disease and resistance to other important pathogens such as brown patch
and red thread. Wear tolerance as a major
component in selecting new ryegrasses.
Breeders have been crossing more winteractive wear tolerant ryegrasses with American germplasm to increase the wear
tolerance during the colder months. An additional high priority in perennial ryegrass
breeding has been salt tolerance. This is
due to the increasing use of effluent water
in many golf courses in the United States
and elsewhere.
Hybrids of Texas bluegrass and Kentucky bluegrass have the potential to expand the range of Kentucky bluegrass.
Many of these are more heat and drought
tolerant than traditional Kentucky bluegrasses, although some new cultivars of
Kentucky bluegrass have also been selected
for more heat and drought tolerance. The
other major advantage of these hybrids is
their extensive rhizomes systems. In wear
trials they have shown excellent wear toler-
www.stma.org
PURE SEED COMPANY seed yield trials for Kentucky bluegrass. Wide variability in maturity and appearance. Only a small fraction of these will make it
to market.
WEAR TRIALS on tall fescues at Rutgers Univer-
sity July 2011. New tall fescues are more wear tolerant even under heat stress.
ance, rapid recovery and more winter-active
growth making them better suited for many
applications.
In breeding of all species seed yield is
just as important as diseases resistance or
turf quality. Often if you find cultivars or
experimentals that are only on the market a
short time or are never marketed it is due
to inadequate seed yield. We must often
cycle one generation for a turf characteristic and then another for seed yield. Turf
breeders have been very successful in improving turf quality and seed yield at the
same time but we may not find that true in
the future.
Development of new turf cultivars takes
many steps and the diverse needs make it
different from many other crops. Turf breeders must have patience and understand the
many needs of customers plus seed
growers. n
Dr. Leah A. Brilman is the director of research and technical services for Pickseed/Seed
Research of Oregon, www.sroseed.com.
SportsTurf 15
