Purdue University

By Ross Braun and Aaron Patton, Purdue University

A team of scientists at Purdue University, Oregon State University, and University of Minnesota investigated establishment differences among the fine fescue taxa and at the same time investigated the influences of different levels of nitrogen fertilizer and including clover. The objectives were to investigate differences among fine fescue taxa and determine optimal N fertility or clover-inclusion programs for fine fescue taxa during establishment for future low-input sites.

By Ross Braun and Aaron Patton, Purdue University

One component of the multi-state USDA-SCRI fine fescue initiative was to create effective educational materials that cover the benefits of fine fescues and information learned in our first project as well as in the current projects with objectives that focus on overcoming establishment and management barriers relevant to different consumers and turf practitioners.

By Ross Braun and Aaron Patton, Purdue University

In the blog post last month (November 2021), Emily Braithwaite and Dr. Alec Kowalewski, Oregon State University summarized the findings and how a recent experiment was conducted to investigate optimal seeding dates for fine fescues across four U.S. locations. In summary, seeding a fine fescue mixture in August and September provided the best establishment with the lowest weed pressure across all four locations. However, the Mediterranean climate of Oregon allowed for more flexibility in fine fescue seeding timing with more success for all the months of May through September.

By Aaron Patton and Ross Braun, Purdue University

These five fescues are often grouped together and called “fine fescues” because of their similar appearance of fine (narrow or bristle) leaves, which means they are difficult to distinguish from one another visually.

By Ross Braun and Aaron Patton, Purdue University

Fine fescues are being intensively studied by a team of researchers, which includes Drs. Aaron Patton and Ross Braun from Purdue University, working a grant titled "Increasing Low-Input Turfgrass Adoption through Breeding, Innovation, and Public Education" from USDA-NIFA through the Specialty Crop Research Initiative.

By Ross Braun and Aaron Patton, Purdue University

The term “Fescue” is one that you may often hear during golf TV broadcasts or in dialogue with a person about planting, maintaining, controlling, etc. some kind of grass. However, just using the term “fescue” really doesn’t tell you much about this grass because there are many different kinds of fescues.