Seed companies release new varieties for winter overseeding

CORVALLIS, Ore. -This fall, new introductions will be breaking into the winter overseeding market offering golf course superintendents a salt tolerant ryegrass, improved seed blends, and higher quality turfgrasses.

The goal for golf course superintendents, particularly those below the transition zone, is to present a playing surface that's both attractive and enticing to golfers as Bermudagrass goes dormant.

The overseeding market, therefore, is a lucrative one for seed companies, and new products this year aim to bring value to golf courses and golfers alike. Although most seed companies primarily focus on permanent turf, they also have been looking at new ways to ease the golf course superintendent's seasonal challenge to accommodate golfers.

SEED RESEARCH OF OREGON

SR 4500 is the newest perennial ryegrass to be released this year from SRO. "It's going to work better for super-- intendents the further South they are in the United States," said Skip Lynch, technical agronomist. "If they're in the northern end of the overseeding market, it may hang in there a little too long. It has a high endophyte and offers a fairly dark green color. It's a good looking grass with lots of tillers."

A lot of companies sell individual seed components to allow superintendents to make their own blends. SRO has taken that additional step out of the process by offering their own new blends of Champion Fine and Champion Max.

"Champion Fine is a blend of our ryegrass with the SR 5100 chewings fescue," Lynch said. "It makes a little better playing surface because the ball sits up a little better. The fescue has a much stiffer leaf blade. It transitions very well, and you won't lose any color having the chewings in there.

"The Champion Max blend is basically for greens overseeding," said Lynch. "It has Poa trivialis in it, and you can take it down to a very fine mowing height. It has excellent color, is very dark green, and has a quick transition in the spring time." TURF SEED

Turf Seed is showcasing four new varieties this season: BrightStar SLT is a salt-- tolerant ryegrass; Citation Fore which is their highest ranking perennial ryegrass in the latest National Turfgrass Evaluation Program (NTEP) trials; and two Poa trivialis varieties called WinterPlay and WinterStar.

"There was extensive work on BrightStar SLT for salt tolerance over at Pure Seed Testing [Hubbard, Ore.]," said Tom Stanley, marketing manager. "What they did was place all the NTEP perennials into a salt water bath. They subjected them to the bath, at 17,000 parts/million, for nine weeks."

Most of the varieties were destroyed. "Some, however, still had green and growing tissue," Stanley said. "BrightStar SLT was one of the top survivors. It also has a good resistance to red thread. It will work well in areas with cool, moist, maritime winters."

Citation Fore will require less mowing, according to Stanley. "It has reduced steminess and reduced vertical growth in the spring and summer," he said. "It also has a 54 percent endophyte content, so it will be fairly resistant to aboveground feeding insects."

WinterPlay and WinterStar, two Poa trivialas varieties released by Turf Seed in limited quantities last year, will be more available this fall. "They'll be ideal for the South, where they're just going to be temporary grasses," said Stanley. "Also, the Northeastern and upper Midwest regions where there's wet, shady areas difficult for growing turf or even in shade mixes for permanent turf."

PENNINGTON SEED

Pennington Seed, in Madison, Ga., is offering two new perennial ryegrasses that were both bred at Rutgers University.

"Applaud provides great color and has a very nice leaf texture," said Russ Nicholson, national sales manager. "We've found that it transitions very well. It's not one of these varieties you plant and have concerns about next spring in the South. It doesn't take the heat very well."

The other variety, Integra, will be available in limited quantities this fall for commercial use. "Next year, we'll step up production," Nicholson said. "It will still be in limited supply, but we'll have a few million pounds of it by then.

"Like the Applaud seed, Integra was also bred at Rutgers for disease resistance, a dark green color, and good texture," said Nicholson. "In trials, we've found it to be a strong performer for the overseeding market."

JACKLIN SEED

Plant breeder Susan Sumudio at the Jacklin Seed Co. in Post Falls, Idaho, was one of the driving forces behind two `spanking new" perennial ryegrasses, Extreme and Galaxy.

"Extreme features excellent spring green-up, high density, and a dark green color," said Sumudio. "It also exhibits good pink snow mold resistance. It's been tested in company trials since 1997 and was entered in the 1999 perennial ryegrass NTEP trial. It's done very well in northern trials."

Galaxy was especially developed for the Midwest, according to Sumudio. The company has tested it since 1998 at sites in Ohio, Maryland and New Jersey. "It's characterized as medium-fine texture, high density and a medium-dark green color," said Sumudio. "It also has demonstrated moderate resistance to leaf rust and gray leaf spot [GLS]. On a scale of one to nine, it's closer to a five or six in GLS resistance. But it's not being completely wiped out."

Copyright United Publications, Inc. Oct 2001
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