ATA Turf Times – Dave Han, PhD & Beth Guertal, PhD, Alabama Extension & Auburn University
It sometimes seems as though the turfgrass world is being bombarded by new turfgrass varieties. Although turf managers who come from the world of seeded cool-season grasses are more used to changes in variety names and blends, the world of vegetatively-propagated warm-season grasses has traditionally been more static. After all, Tifway bermudagrass has been with us since the 1960s, and Meyer and Emerald zoysiagrass had a decades-long run as the dominant varieties in the Southeast. But in recent years, the market has seen newer varieties making inroads into the warm-season markets, especially bermudagrasses and zoysiagrasses. Here is an overview of some of the new and new-ish varieties to the market in the Southeast in the last few years.
Where do these new grasses come from?
Universities and the USDA
There are several sources of new turfgrass varieties. Some of the most well-known warm-season turfgrasses were developed by universities working alone or in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service. The prime example of such a cooperative effort is the breeding program at Tifton, Georgia, where the breeding program shared by the University of Georgia and the USDA-ARS has given us many famous bermudagrass varieties over the decades, from Tifgreen (328) and Tifway (419) in the 1950s and 1960s all the way to TifTuf, released in 2016. TifTuf, the newest in the ’Tif’ series of hybrid bermudagrasses, maintains its color under drought conditions much better than Tifway and is fast growing. TifBlair centipedegrass, bred for increased cold tolerance, is another release from this group, while several seashore paspalum varieties such as the SeaIsle series and SeaStar have come from the University of Georgia’s breeding program at Griffin, Ga.
The University of Florida maintains an active turfgrass breeding program focusing mainly on developing St. Augustinegrass and zoysiagrass varieties. Released in 1973 in cooperation with Texas A&M, Floratam St. Augustinegrass is still a standard variety, while their newer St. Augustinegrasses Captiva and CitraBlue came out in 2007 and 2018, respectively. Captiva is a semi-dwarf variety with a lower growth habit than most St. Augustinegrasses, and CitraBlue is a UF has also released several zoysiagrasses in 2018 and 2019, such as FAES 1319 and FAES 1307.
Texas A&M University also has a new St. Augustinegrass variety, TamStar, bred for improved drought tolerance and tolerance to gray leaf spot. They are perhaps best known for their zoysiagrass releases. In the 1990s and 2000s, they released Diamond, Crowne, Palisades, Royal and Zorro. The latest zoysiagrass releases from
Texas A&M since 2015 include Chisolm, Lazer and Innovation. Chisolm and Innovation were developed in cooperation with Kansas State University. Lazer is a putting green variety, while Chisolm and Innovation are medium and fine textured grasses, respectively, suitable for fairways, lawns, etc. Both Innovation and Chisolm have been bred for improved cold tolerance. This is a common goal among all warm-season grass breeders. Another common characteristic of newer zoysiagrass varieties – from all sources – is that they tend to be faster growing than older zoysiagrasses. This offers quicker establishment and better recovery from damage, but may mean they need more frequent mowing.
Oklahoma State University is another prolific producer of warm-season turfgrass varieties, especially bermudagrasses with improved cold tolerance. In the past twenty years, OSU released Patriot (in 2006), Latitude 36 and Northbridge in 2011, and most recently Tahoma 31 in 2019. Oklahoma State also has released seeded bermudagrass varieties such as Riviera and Yukon. It has also shown improved shade tolerance in bermudagrass variety trials.