IL PRATO RESEARCH CENTER

CREEPING BENTGRASS TEST AND EXSPERIMENTATION ( LOW IMPUT ) 2024/25

First of all I would like to express my heartfelt thanks: if here we are talking about the varietal difference of Creeping Bent and if we can evaluate all the latest generation cultivars it is mainly thanks to the great scientists of the past and also of the present, namely: Dr. Charles Piper, Russell Oakley and Lyman Carrier, who since 1917 have been interested in improving Creeping Bentgrass; developing the first variety in the world with the name of "SEASIDE". A huge thank you to these scientists who have dedicated their professional life to the world of plant genetics. It is also worth mentioning Dr. Burt Musser and Dr. Joseph Duich from Penn State University who developed Penncross in 1954, paving the way for today's highly skilled breeders, Dr.ssa Stacy Bonos from Rutgers University, who improved our Creeping Bent. Dr.ssa Bonos focused on breeding Creeping Bentgrass with improved overall quality, density, disease resistance. Thanks to all the breeders and future breeders who are working on turf, especially Creeping Bentgrass. The future is upon us and I am sure they are already working on the 6th generation of Creeping Bentgrass with an eye on climate change and heat and drought resistance. I am sure that in the coming years we could have more heat stress and disease resistant cultivars on the market. So good luck and a big thank you.

Let's give a brief account of who we are:

Our research center has been studying creeping bentgrass since 2015, in collaboration with the agricultural school, which provides us with students so that they can learn agronomic practices for the maintenance of lawns (in particular Creeping Bentgrass). Our goal is to develop practical and theoretical skills in the world of lawns with a specific focus on Creeping Bentgrass; to promote environmental awareness and the importance of lawns in sustainability.

Direct involvement of students in experiments, observations and evaluations. (The evaluations are impartial and without any interest, in fact in the tests there are no names of the cultivars). During the tests, which can last up to two years, no one knows the cultivars, (except the managers) the names of the cultivars are revealed only at the end of the test.

In the photo, students writing their evaluations on the creeping bentgrass tests

Creeping bentgrass is a particularly interesting species for its ability to adapt to different environmental conditions, but it is also vulnerable to various climatic stresses, such as intense extreme heat. In our center we focus on resistance tests to extreme temperatures, with the aim of selecting cultivars that have resistance and resilience to help greenpeers choose cultivars for their sowing and reseeding. Especially in this historical period with continuous climate changes. Through targeted studies we test different varieties of creeping bentgrass in intense heat conditions to evaluate their resistance to dehydration and root damage. The results of these experiments are fundamental to select varieties of creeping bentgrass that can maintain a healthy appearance even during the hottest seasons, thus reducing the need for interventions and improving the sustainability of the turf.

The varieties we subjected to this test are: AU VICTORY, 007XL, OAKLEY and PIPER.

Agronomic practices:

*Cutting height 3.2 mm blade always sharp

*Dew removal

*10 grams of N per square meter per year

*Cutting: in periods of greater growth, two cuts per day

*No fungicides

*Irrigation: 40 mm of water per week divided into 3 irrigation

*Fertilization : Yes ,foliar fertilization: yes with organic biostimulants based on algae every two weeks approximately

*Verticutting: yes end of February and end of August

*Top dressing: yes end of February - end of August

The Creeping Bentgrass trials were sown in 2021 on natural soil. The photos and videos below are all from July 2024, where the cultivars were subjected to high temperatures for Agrostis striata standards. They ranged from maximum temperatures of 34/37 degrees during the day to 20/25 degrees at night. The cultivars did not get disease and no fungicides were applied. We performed deep aeration (verti-cutting) with voluntarily reported wounds with subsequent top dressing to verify recovery from mechanical stress (all this in spring) to evaluate, as mentioned, the vegetative recovery. In July the grass was in excellent condition, obviously with low maintenance inputs, with 40 mm of irrigation per week and with foliar fertilization every two weeks.

Photo above the green divided into 4 parts, with Oakley, 007XL, Piper and AU Victory

Photo above 007XL JULY 2024

Photo above Oakley, July 2024

Photo above Piper July 2024, 37° C.

Photo above : AU Victory, July 2024, 37°C.

Photo above Piper July 2024

Photo above Piper July 2024, 37°C.

Video above AU Victory 11 July 2024 34 ° C.

Video above 007XL July 2024, 34 ° C.

Video above Oakley 11 Luglio 2024 , 34° C.

Video above Piper, 11 July 2024, 34 C.

Final conclusions

At this point we have come to the conclusions: There is a premise to make: the improved cultivars and that is: those that are being examined today are. Piper, Oakley, 007XL are very similar in genetics, but there are differences that we have found. AU Victory instead has a very different genetics: it is a more prostrate plant (we like it a lot) it has an excellent general quality, an excellent resistance to heat, a darker green color but not tending to blue, it is a very beautiful dark green green. Returning to the evaluations all the cultivars have behaved well with small differences but a careful and trained eye like ours has identified. We congratulate all those who have developed these 4 splendid cultivars that have made us enthusiastic in being able to grow / experiment and test them and for these 3 years.

I would like to briefly explain the evaluations on the uniformity of the turf in summer: the tests were developed with very high temperatures of 34° C / 37° and 007XL, even if it is a good cultivar it is not uniform in summer because it tends to swell in the reproductive period. and for this reason it takes away uniformity.

Conclusions: first of all I thank all my collaborators for the hard work done this summer. It was not easy, but the passion for creeping bentgrass made everything easier. For us the best was Piper; one of the reasons, in our opinion, was that it produced less organic substance and consequently performed better water exchanges and gas exchanges, which in the long run lead to better performances by being able to absorb nutrients and water more efficiently. This is not a small detail, if we then add the great quality of Piper in all phases of the summer.

THE FUTURE: We have already sown new plots with 3 replicas for each of:

PST-OHR

PST-OMRN

SPECTRUM

OAKLEY

PIPER

PURE DISTINCTION

PENNCROSS

VALDERRAMA

MATCH PLAY

PURE ECLIPSE

AU VICTORY

In the next articles we will start the evaluation on this new project and we will update you with new articles.

Thank you for your attention!!!

Photo above the new creeping bentgrass tests for the 2025 season

THANKS We wanted to thank the companies that have provided and will provide us with the seeds for our tests over all these years: Mountain View Seeds,Landmark Seeds Company,Semillas Fito',Pure seeds,Seed Research