Low maintenance turf – quality and weed aspects.

Grzegorz Żurek

Department of Grasses, Legumes and Energy Plants, Laboratory of Nonfooder Grasses and Energy Plants, Radzików 05-870 Błonie (Poland)

Bartosz Tomaszewski

Centre for Plant Genetic Resources, Botanical Garden, Bydgoszcz (Poland)

Abstract

Turfgrass varieties of Festuca rubra ssp. rubra, F.r. ssp. trichophylla, F. nigrescens, F.arundinacea, F.ovina ssp. vulgaris, F.o. ssp duriuscula, Lolium perenne and Poa pratensis as well as mixtures of high and low share of Lolium perenne were tested in low maintenance conditions during 5 years and evaluated for: shoot density, visual merit and for weed infestation. None of tested entries was able to keep initial quality. Only for few of them (mostly varieties of Festuca ovina ssp. duriuscula and F.arundinacea) visual merit after 5 years was still close to the level of minimal user-accepted value (5 in 1-9 scale). The least visual merit values were noted for Poa pratensis and Festuca rubra ssp. rubra...

Keywords:

cultivars, Festuca arundinacea, Festuca nigrescens, Festuca rubra, Festuca ovina, Lolium perenne, low-input, mixtures, Poa pratensis