Paul Koch

When it comes to snow mold, fine fescue is the choice

By Paul Koch, University of Wisconsin – Madison

turfgrass plots with ones on the left greener than the ones on the right

As the Midwest and Northeast U.S. emerged from their winter snow covers in mid-March, it was clear that snow mold across the region was more damaging than normal. This was especially true in areas that don’t normally experience lots of snow mold such as southern Wisconsin, northern Illinois, New Jersey, and Connecticut.

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.

Choosing fine fescues for summer patch and snow mold resistance

Research plot with turfgrass starting to grow in after winter. Plots to the left are much greener than those on right.

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.

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.