SEEDED AND VEGETATIVELY PROPAGATED CULTIVAR COMPARISONS WITHIN BOTH CYNODON AND ZOYSIA SPECIES

P. Croce¹, A. De Luca¹, M. Mocioni¹, M. Volterrani² and J.B Beard³

       ¹Federazione Italiana Golf, Green Section, Sutri, Italy.

²University of Pisa, Dipartimento di Agronomia e Gestione dell’Agroecosistema, Pisa, Italy.

³International Sports Turf Institute, Inc., College Station, Texas, USA

Limited water availability is a major concern in many regions of Mediterranean Europe.  Mostly part C₃ cool-season turfgrasses have been used which unfortunately have a higher water use rate than for the C₄, warm-season species.  The objective of this investigation was to evaluate the adaptation of vegetatively propagated versus seeded cultivars of both Cynodon and Zoysia species for the Mediterranean region.  There were 11 seeded and 5 vegetatively propagated cultivars of Cynodon compared, along with 4 seeded and 5 vegetatively cultivars of Zoysía.  All were maintained under cultural conditions representative of fairways and sports fields, including a 13 mm cutting height, mowed 2 to 3 times per week.  After 4 years of assessments at the experimental site near Rome, Italy, the results reveal that the vegetative propagated cultivars have performed superior to the seeded cultivars in terms of turfgrass quality, shoot density, and leaf blade width.  The green-live canopy biomass and root biomass assessments revealed no specific differentials between the two groups of cultivars for either species.

Keywords: canopy biomass; fairway; leaf blade width; root biomass; shoot density; sport fields; turf quality.