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Turf grass trials

Establishment of turf grass trials - Some guidelines

 

1. Establishment etc.

Turf trials must be sown manually. You have to prepare the soil with great care so that it is even and free of large stones. Preparing should be as carefully as if done in your own garden. If the trials are sown in part of an agricultural field and you start sowing after the field has been harrowed, then you have to prepare the soil as follows:

1. The soil must not be too loose. It maybe needs rolling with a hand roller or the like.

2.  Even if the soil is very fine, you have to rake it and make it even, also remove all large stones.

3.  There should just be 1 (one) cm of loose soil to rake the seed in.

 

Plot design

There are several possibilities as to plot size: you can sow 1 x 1, 2 x 1, or 2 x 2 m. But it is very important to have at least one, or even better, two replications.

To mark the plots you can either sow another specie in a row between the plots, or you can, after the trials have been established, spray the edges of each plot with e.g. a weed killer by making a cross on each edge.

Sowing is done by hand. The best method is to weigh seeds for each sqm. Use also this method when sowing 2 sqm plots to know how much seed to distribute per sqm. After sowing, the seed has to be raked in by hand for each plot. It is better to wait with rolling till after the seed has established depending a bit on the weather conditions in the region you are living in. If it is a very windy region, we recommend that you wait, because the seed will stay better on the soil when it is a bit dry. Sowing should take place when the weather is not too hot, in order for the soil not to dry out. If irrigation is possible, it should be fine misty to avoid moving the seed or splashing the soil too much.

 

Seed weight

The following seed amount can be sown per sqm:

Lolium perenne 20-25 g
Festuca rubra 15-20 g
Poa pratensis 10-15 g
Festuca ovina duriuscula 15 g
Festuca arundinacea 25-30 g
Agrostis about 5 g

The seed amount depends on how fine and humid the soil is. On a normally prepared soil we recommend you take the highest seed weights.

When the turf trial has come up and is established, you can move the grass if it is becoming too heigh. The first time you are cutting, you should not go lower than about 4 - 5 cm. The next time you can go lower maybe 3.5 and so on, depending on what kind of soil and the purpose of the turf area.

 

Cutting height

For an all-round turf field a cutting height of 2.5 - 3 cm is recommended. For special mixtures as e.g. festuca rubra and agrostis you could go down to 1 cm, depending again on the circumstances. To this purpose you need a special fine mower.

 

2. Evaluation

Important observations to be made by eye are:

Establishment - some weeks after germination. Especially in Poa pratensis you may see rather great differences between varieties. It can be repeated after some weeks giving a character for stand/ground cover.

General appearance - how is the overall look, should be done monthly at least.

Density - should be done at least in spring and autumn, but better 3 - 4 times a year.

Disease - in case of attack you should take notes 1 - 2 times, depending how strong and how long the attack is.

Types	Latin name
Rust	Puccinia
Red thread	Laetisaria
Fusarium (summer type)	Colmorum
Fusarium (winter type)	Nivale

 

Drought resistance.

Start of spring growth - if your climate dictates any differences in start of spring growth).

Green colour in winter/summer - often connected to other characters as 4 and 5, but there might be general differences in the seasons.

Growth vigour - sometimes there are very vigorous varieties that are not wanted.

Resistant to wear - if there is done a wear treatment by a specially constructed wear machine.

A scale of 1-9 is best suited, 9 being the most positive result.

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