Efficiency is the key to success, even in designer
grasses.

“The new grasses are all being developed with the goal of
maintaining turf quality with less input of water, pesticides
and, to some degree, fertilizer,” said Wayne Hanna, a U.S.
Department of Agriculture turf grass breeder.

Hanna, working closely with the University of Georgia Coastal
Plain Experiment Station in Tifton, Ga., helped usher in some of
the most successful new Bermuda grasses and centipede grasses.
Most of the triploid hybrid Bermuda grasses used world-wide were
developed in Tifton.

On the Market

Two of Hanna’s Bermuda grasses already on the market include
TifEagle and TifSport. TifEagle is a super dwarf Bermuda grass
for golf course greens. TifSport is a more cold-hardy grass for
sports fields. Parts of more than 300 golf courses throughout the
South planted TifEagle in 1999.

TifEagle was in testing for eight years before it was
released. TifSport took 11 years.

“We genetically incorporate the genes that will give
resistance to the major pests and drought,and maintain acceptable
turfgrass quality under less water,” Hanna says.

“Most of our screening and breeding is conducted under
conditions of minimum fertility,” he said. “We select genotypes
that will eventually become cultivars to produce an acceptable
quality turf with less fertilizer. We need grasses that more
efficiently use the nutrients.”

UGA Turf Team

Hanna’s work is part of the turfgrass program conducted by 14
scientists in UGA’s College of Agricultural and Environmental
Sciences. The turf team develops new varieties, screens current
varieties for tolerance to environmental stresses and studies
insects and diseases.

These scientists are studying a long list of potential new
grasses and turf. It includes 132 tall fescues, 30 Zoysia
grasses, 20 buffalo grasses and 32 Bermuda grasses.

The Georgia Experiment Station in Griffin focuses on screening
turfgrasses for tolerance in high-stress situations in the
Southeast. They include high soil acidity, high soil bulk
density, heavy clay soils and high heat and extreme drought
stresses. They have screened more than 500 cultivars representing
most turfgrass species grown throughout the world.

In 1992 Ronny Duncan, a turfgrass breeder in Griffin, set up
the only breeding program in the world for seashore paspalum. He
has released two paspalum grasses: Sea Isle I, for golf fairways,
tees and sports turf, was developed from genetic material found
in Argentina; Sea Isle 2000, for golf course greens, originated
from genetic material collected on the west coast of Florida.

Unique Studies

“These grasses are unique,” says Gil Landry, a UGA extension
turf specialist. “Nobody else in the world is dealing with
paspalum. They tolerate much higher levels of salt (up to ocean
level salts — 34,400 ppm) in soil and water. The paspalum
turfgrasses are native to coastal areas in similar climates
throughout the world.”

The grasses are scheduled to be released in the summer of
2000. A book titled “Seashore Paspalum – The Environmental
Turfgrass” by Duncan will be available in February 2000. This
book contains scientific facts about the grass and management
information, including irrigation with sea water. The book will
be available from Ann Arbor Press, Chelsea, Mich.

A few months ago, Duncan released a new fall fescue adapted to
Georgia’s growing conditions. It should be available to the
public in a few years.

New grass varieties must thrive under the same conditions
homeowners face to maintain a healthy lawn.

“I’m trying to take my own advice,” Hanna says. “We need to
learn how to use less water and less pesticides in the future.
It’s not if we want to, it’s that we will have to.”

Duncan agrees.

“Seashore paspalum will add a new dimension in that all types
of alternative water resources (effluent from wastewater and
recycled water, brackish water or sea water) can be used for
irrigation. This turfgrass tolerates wet, boggy areas. And, yet
with good management, it has excellent drought tolerance. This
grass will require minimal pesticides and fertilizer so it will
be very environmentally friendly,” Duncan says.