Location: Forage and Range Research
Project Number: 2080-21000-018-011-T
Project Type: Trust Fund Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: May 1, 2016
End Date: Dec 31, 2019
Objective:
To identify sources of introduced and native wheatgrass germplasm that are appropriate for use in golf course roughs and out of bounds areas.
Approach:
We will evaluate the turfgrass potential (quality, density/persistence, and color) of improved populations of crested, intermediate, thickspike, and western wheatgrasses under irrigation (50% evapotranspiration replacement and no irrigation) and mowing treatments. For each of the wheatgrass species, we will compare our improved population to a corresponding check cultivar ('RoadCrest' crested wheatgrass, 'Tegmar' intermediate wheatgrass, 'Rosana' western wheatgrass, and 'Sodar' thickspike wheatgrass) in monoculture conditions. We will also evaluate the improved and check populations in mixtures. Mixtures will include eight binary mixtures among the four check populations, eight binary mixtures among the four improved populations, eight binary mixtures between the check/improved populations and PI 440603 Kentucky bluegrass, eight binary mixtures between the check/improved populations and 'Covar' sheep fescue, sixteen triple mixtures between the check/improved populations and Kentucky bluegrass and sheep fescue. The result is 58 monoculture/mixture treatments when including the Kentucky bluegrass and sheep fescue monocultures.
