Perennial ryegrass

Learn more about our research! A new research article from our group has been published in Grass and Forage Science. Garett Heineck and co-authors wrote about new methods they investigated to identify superior plant material for perennial ryegrass breeding programs.

By Joan M. Barreto Ortiz

Learn more about our research! Two new research articles from our group have been published in Crop Science.

Watering Wisdom Webinar series

The goal of this webinar series, created in partnership with the Metropolitan Council, is to help homeowners have healthier lawns and more efficient irrigation systems.

By Florence Sessoms

In the first part of this series, I described what arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are and how they can benefit plants. In this post, I will discuss how AMF might benefit turfgrasses. Cool-season and warm-season grasses are both able to be infected with mycorrhizal fungi. A quick literature review showed that several benefits of AMF were observed with turfgrasses such as improved biomass, nutrient content, decrease in weed incidence and disease severity (Table 1). 

Summary of study

Plants of 300 wild and landrace accessions from the National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS) and a collection at Rutgers University were tested in two field environments for winterhardiness (as measured by tiller survival) and other turf traits. The field environments were at Becker and St. Paul, MN. The traits measured were seedling vigor, tiller survival in 2005 and 2006, spring growth in 2005 and 2006, summer and autumn turf quality, color, leaf texture, crown rust incidence, growth habit and spreading vigor.

2019 Data

All links below are .pdf files

• Management of 2019 Trials

Creeping bentgrass

• 2014 Creeping bentgrass NTEP green

Kentucky bluegrass

• 2017 Kentucky bluegrass NTEP

Perennial ryegrass