By Kristine Moncada, University of Minnesota
We are happy to announce that from now on, we will be posting twice-monthly articles about our research on fine fescues. The long-term goal of our project is to increase the use of well-adapted fine fescue turfgrass cultivars in sustainable landscapes. Our project team has educators and researchers from around the country who are doing outreach and research on a multitude of aspects of low input turf. Examples of topics we will be covering are:
- Fine fescue cultivar improvement in disease resistance and stress tolerance
- Fine fescue genetics including marker development and sequencing
- Fine fescue physiology such as allelopathy assessment and shade tolerance
- Best management practices for fine fescues
- Barriers and incentives for consumer use of fine fescues
- Barriers and incentives for land manager use of fine fescues
- Fine fescues database to help consumers choose the best cultivars
- Educational materials on fine fescues for consumers, researchers and producers
- Outreach efforts relating to the project
With this blog, we hope to inform and engage people about the many fine features of fine fescues! Make sure to never miss our blog posts by following our Twitter (@LowInputTurf) or Facebook (Low Input Turf) accounts.
For questions:
- The Project Director of this project is Eric Watkins ([email protected]), University of Minnesota
- The lead on social media for the project is Ross Braun ([email protected]), Purdue University
- The administrator of this blog and website is Kristine Moncada ([email protected]), University of Minnesota
This project is supported by a grant, "Increasing Low-Input Turfgrass Adoption Through Breeding, Innovation, and Public Education", from the USDA-NIFA through the Specialty Crop Research Initiative.
