Low Input Grasses as Recurrent Biomass Sources

Perennial grasses are not only good for amenity and for feeding they are also good for CO2 neutral energy production. And if you ask a number of scientific experts now gearing up for research in a new EU project, such grasses may also have a very sustainable input/output ratio when it comes to growing demands. The project is called "GrassMargins" and as the name indicates it aims at finding optimal grasses and optimal conditions for grass biomass production on marginal soils. The project consortium consists of 12 partners from eight countries representing Northern, Central and Western Europe, Russia and China.

Eight Academic Institutions and four companies, including DLF-TRIFOLIUM are going to investigate the properties of three C3 grasses, Tall fescue, Cocksfoot, Reed canary grass and one C4 grass, Miscanthus, in relation to low input. While Miscanthus is well known for its high biomass yield it remains to be elucidated, which of the four grasses has the overall best performance, productivity, and economy when it comes to growth under marginal and perhaps stressful conditions.

The projects will also perform pre-breeding within these species in order to improve both productivity under stressful conditions and drying after cutting in the field. DLF-TRIFOLIUM has great expertise in drought and salt tolerance and will test included breeding material in its semi-hydroponic system and in salt-affected soils in France. All material is subject to extensive modeling using the experimental data to get a qualified image of the most productive species/varieties under various marginal conditions. The consortium has a total budget of 4 million Euro and will run until October 2015.

Fine fescues in the combat against Poa annua

Having trouble defeating Poa annua on your golf green? Simply turn up the slender fine fescue content and start winning your combats. If you are struggling to keep your green free of Poa annua, you may want to call for aid from some of the fine fescues that you already know.

This is one of the clear messages to be extracted from a recently finalised competition trial carried out at DLF-TRIFOLIUM’s R&D greens facilities. The initial idea was to investigate how different nitrogen levels affect the combat between sown grasses and Poa annua. In order to do this, DLF-TRIFOLIUM established a four year trial in collaboration with The Danish Golf Union and The Agricultural University (KULife). Two additional factors were also examined; wear applications and sown grass species. Poa annua taken with a hole cutter was inserted as cores into established plots of one square meter. 

In the first trial, two fine fescue mixtures were tested alongside pure varieties of the three typical mix components, Browntop, Chewings and Slender Red Fescue. While Poa annua increased in area alongside the Browntop variety, its growth was reduced 20-35% in fine fescue plots, with slender fescue being the most potent inhibitor (graph below).

In the second trial, some of the newest chewings and slender varieties were tested against each other at fixed nitrogen levels. All the slender type fescues showed the same remarkable efficiency in restricting Poa annua growth (graph below). Chewings also defeated Poa annua growth albeit at a more reduced level.

In the second trial, some of the newest chewings and slender varieties were tested against each other at fixed nitrogen levels. All the slender type fescues showed the same remarkable efficiency in restricting Poa annua growth (graph below). Chewings also defeated Poa annua growth albeit at a more reduced level.

These interesting findings will surely find their way into new golf green mixtures with higher content of slender type varieties (up to 75%) to help combat your future Poa annua problems.

Novelties in France - Nine extraordinary Quality Turf varieties from DLF-TRIFOLIUM

Two new tall fescues and seven new perennial ryegrass varieties has just been top listed in the French Official Turf List.

The two tall fescues, ESSENTIAL and EYECANDY, carry American genes for dark color, with Eyecandy more pronounced than Essential. Both varieties show strong vitality, high density, and very good quality over the year.  On top of this ESSENTIAL also shows excellent wear tolerance, qualifying it directly to the top of the French list.

The seven perennial ryegrass varieties are Aiken, IS-PR 274, Clementine, Duparc, Enesco, Greenblush and Leclair.  These varieties cover the color groups from medium green (DUPARC) to the vary dark (IS-PR 274). Summer performance is very good for AIKEN, DUPARC and GREENBLUSH, but the absolute winner is CLEMENTINE.  This eye-catching variety, which at all times have been standing out from the others in the lawn trials have demonstrated extraordinary lawn qualities with clear green color, very fine leaves, excellent density, very high persistence, and tolerance to wear. Most of these very promising ryegrass varieties are also under National testing in other European countries, mainly DE, UK and NL, confirming the high qualities shown in the preliminary results.

Grasses for Extreme Challenges

These years we experience an increasing demand for high quality grass varieties, which are drought or salt tolerant. Such varieties are most-wanted by golf and sport facilities placed in dry or coastal areas, where evaporation is high or where frequent penetration of seawater into the waterbed creates problems with saline irrigation especially during summer. In addition, in northern areas, de-icing roads has resulted in high salt levels along roadsides. That is why DLF-TRIFOLIUMs R&D Department for several years now has investigated the ability of grass to withstand different types of stress. The first hardy varieties have already been identified, and soon the company can deliver the first turf mixtures with salt tolerant varieties.

With climate models predicting more extreme weather in the future plant producers, green keepers, managers of recreational areas, as well as private households will be left with no other option than to use recycled water or to skip irrigation for longer periods. However, irrigation with recycled water often causes a slow and detrimental accumulation of salts in the soil. Leaf tip burns, discoloration and difficulties in controlling pests are common symptoms and implications for turf grasses stressed by elevated salt levels.

Some grass species are very sensitive to salt stress and display severe symptoms even at moderate concentrations while others, such as Tall fescue, can grow in soils with salt levels similar to that of brackish water. In order to identify the most salt tolerant varieties within DLF-TRIFOLIUMs portfolio new breeding material is continuously being tested under controlled greenhouse conditions. Well-established plants growing in soil-free media, where all nutrients and salts are precisely dosed, are subject to increasing amounts of salt. When symptoms are evident and varied within each species all varieties are evaluated and only the best selected for further testing. Such varieties are now being screened for salt tolerance under field conditions in Australia. They are also subject to drought trials at DLF-TRIFOLIMs breeding station in Oregon as these two types of stress tolerances seems to be connected.

During the last few years municipalities and regulatory authorities have also increased their focus on stress tolerance and sustainability. In extension of this awareness The National Turfgrass Evaluation Program (NTEP) in USA has now incorporated salt tolerance test as one of the compulsory elements in the extensive evaluation list. DLF-TRIFOLIUM submits every year a number putative varieties to this test. The goal is not only having single salt tolerant varieties recommended but also to deliver complete mixtures where the included species have a strong and balanced salt tolerance.

Green is green and turf is turf - or is it?

Not if you ask Steve Reid, who is the charge of DLF-TRIFOLIUMs American turf breeding program. To him and many other people who are enthusiastic about their turf, turf is about esthetically good looking grasses. It’s about color, it’s about ground coverage, it’s about leaf densities, and for sport and leisure purposes it’s also about wear tolerance. So this is what Steve is aiming at, when selecting for the coming top varieties: A top quality turf grass is fine-leafed and dense, it has high tiller production to ensure good ground coverage even at very low-mowing. While preferences for specific colors differ between areas (dark green in North America, and normal green for Europe), it is important that all turf varieties maintain their good looking color over the entire growth season and be as little affected by fungal attack (rust) or drought stress.

However, among thousands of turf breeding plots, the assessment of these parameters by the human eye is easily misjudged either by changing light and weather conditions or by other types of false interpretation. To battle this situation and to achieve the most objective measurements Steve and his team employ a digital image system developed by Dr. Karcher, and Richardson of the University of Arkansas. It can take a snapshot a turf plot independently of environmental light conditions and transform the pixels into quality measurements. Covered by a square metal box the captured turf plot is only illuminated by a built-in light source. This allows for a direct comparison between plots by the image analysis software, which calculates turf color-, coverage-, and density scores based on a pre-defined scale of hue and saturation. Images taken before and after wear treatments are used to calculate wear tolerance of each breeding line. According to Steve, the system is both robust and reliable, and he has already five new varieties selected by this system in the pipeline for official testing. He wouldn’t be surprise to see similar imaging systems becoming the standard method of assessing turf quality at the National Test Centers in the future. So look out for upcoming top quality varieties. They will be more green than your eye can ever imagine.