Nicole Anderson

Open-field burning in Oregon fine fescue seed production

By Nicole P. Anderson and Brian C. Donovan, Oregon State University

A field with burned vegetation

Since the late 1940s, open-field burning has been used as a widespread practice in grass seed production in the Pacific Northwest. Post-harvest residue management is an important factor in several fine fescues, including creeping red fescue and Chewings fescue, and Kentucky bluegrass seed crops.

Project News - 9/15/20

Learn more about our latest work!  The Low Input Turf project team has written two recent articles.

Project news - 7/21/20

Learn more about our latest work!  The Low Input Turf project team has written two recent articles and led a webinar.

New review article on the five fine fescue taxa

Fine fescue lawn with dew on blades

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.

Fine fescue seed production: An Oregon overview

a seed production field of fine fescue in Oregon

By Nicole Anderson and Brian Donovan, Oregon State University

Previous blog posts provided by Purdue University (Braun and Patton) and Oregon State University (Kowalewski et. al.) turf personnel have done an excellent job of describing fine fescue taxonomy and providing an overview of the characteristics associated with the five kinds of fine fescues, respectively. Discussions about fine fescues are often associated with their uses as low-input turfgrasses in homeowner lawns, public green spaces, and golf course fairways.  As fine fescues draw more attention because of their low-input turf attributes, it is critical that a reliable and consistent supply of seed is available in the consumer marketplace.