SportsTurf provides current, practical and technical content on issues relevant to sports turf managers, including facilities managers. Most readers are athletic field managers from the professional level through parks and recreation, universities.
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/251524
February 2014 | SportsTurf 23 www.stma.org thetics, but what we have to consider is, is it the right fit for the facility? I think it needs to be experimented with more and used more. It's certainly is a very good turf for sports turf. It could definitely work very well." Kevin Morris is the Executive Director of the National Turfgrass Evaluation Pro- gram based in Beltsville, MD. Morris worked at NTEP for 15 years with the late Jack Murray, the legendary USDA turf breeder who is credited with bringing many of the zoysiagrass accessions from Southeast Asia into the United States, in- cluding, among others, the turf that even- tually became Zeon Zoysia. Morris says NTEP recently completed a 5-year trial on zoysiagrass and the pro- gram has plans to launch a new zoysia trial this summer that includes some 35 unique entries. So far, most of the testing NTEP has done on zoysia has been for home lawns and golf use. The program has yet to conduct a wear tolerance test specific to sports field use. Still, Morris says, "zoysia holds a lot of promise." He notes that although there are real distinctions between cultivars, zoysia, in general "does have better winter hardi- ness than bermudagrass." The grass can also survive in lower pH soils. "The whole pH and low maintenance aspects are where it has advantages over bermudagrass or the cool season grasses," Morris says. Brian Schwartz, Ph.D., is a zoysiagrass and bermudagrass breeder at the Univer- sity of Georgia. "Zoysia has a stronger leaf … it doesn't wear a path as easily. It's a lower fertility input grass. So, from a bene- fit for the end user, they'll spend less on management and it maintains density. That's very important to an athletic field, that it maintains density with less input. If you fertilize bermudagrass with the same level of N, it would be alive but not as dense. I could see it working. That's why I think it would be a positive. There's better color retention into the fall. In the fall it doesn't change to the dormant color with- out a real freeze. Bermudagrass starts turn- ing dormant, not only with cooler temps but with shorter day lengths. So, a lot of the zoysias need a freeze to turn them dor- mant. Some of them will be growing and recovering from a traffic event in the fall when there's football. So, that's a positive," Schwartz says. "On the negative side, once the leaf in the canopy does get worn, it will have a harder time recovering as fast as bermuda- grass," Schwartz says. He says that he'd like to see more re- search on zoysiagrass for sports turf use. "I would love to see a football or soccer field grassed with 50 yards in zoysia and 50 yards in bermudagrass. That would be the coolest thing in the world for me. It would receive the same amount of wear and we would see which one would hold up. That's never going to happen, but it would answer 90% of our questions on one or two fields," Schwartz says. "I just think there's a yearlong benefit of having zoysiagrass on a sports field like baseball or softball, where you're not wor- rying about wearing it out. For lower yearlong nitrogen rates, and less yearlong watering, you can keep the density so high and uniform with less inputs. Especially on a municipal level where you may ig- nore a field for a period of time, zoysia- grass could be ignored and you could get it back very quickly. At the lower input level, it could be very successful and bene- ficial for folks who can't keep up with the mowing rates and nitrogen rates that a high end bermudagrass would need," Schwartz says. "Add in some shade issues with stadiums, you have a fit for zoysia- grass for a lower requirement for light. Zeon would make a beautiful fit for stadi- ums because of shade." n Stacie Zinn Roberts is an award-winning writer and president of What's Your Avo- cado?, a writing and marketing firm based in Mount Vernon, WA Then rent our list of targeted, qualified readers for your next direct mail promotion. Call today for more information regarding our product lines and extensive database marketing programs. Want to reach qualified buyers? Want to reach qualified buyers? • TARGETED LEADS • SUPERIOR PENETRATION • PROVEN VALUE • OUTSTANDING RESULTS Cheryl Naughton cnaughton@specialtyim.com 678-292-6054 Fax: 360-294-6054