Low Input Turf

By Paul Koch, University of Wisconsin – Madison

Fine fescues are thought to be more disease resistant than other turf species, and in general that’s true. However, a closer look reveals that not all fine fescue species are equally resistant to all turf diseases. Even more confusing, those fine fescue species that are more resistant to certain diseases are often more susceptible to other diseases.

By Yiqun Xie, Majid Farhadloo, Shashi Shekhar, and Len Kne; University of Minnesota

Suppose you have to choose a turfgrass for your lawn. How would you shop for grass seed suitable for your lawn? Would you like to have convenient search and recommendation facilities similar to those available for buying consumer products at e-commerce sites such as amazon.com?

Recently, a team of researchers working on our grant have published an exhaustive scientific review of the fine fescue turf species. This review clearly documents differences in growth, production, establishment, management, utilization, pest tolerance, and stress tolerance of the fine fescue taxa.

By Eric Watkins and Yinjie Qiu, University of Minnesota

Fine fescue research has progressed rapidly in recent years, spurred by greater interest in low-input turf and the availability of funding for improving these grasses. While giving talks to various groups about lawn grasses for Minnesota, we often follow the introduction of fine fescues with a refrain similar to “they all look very similar”: translation “don’t ask me how to tell the fine fescues apart!”.

By Jing Luo and Ning Zhang, Rutgers University

Summer patch is a damaging disease of turfgrasses that is most common in warm weather. It is caused by fungal pathogens that attack and colonize plant roots. Besides fine fescues, many types of turfgrasses, including bentgrass, Kentucky bluegrass, and annual bluegrass, are susceptible to this disease (Smiley et al. 2005).