Dr. Melodee Fraser is leading the turfgrass breeding program in Rolesville, North Carolina, for Pure-Seed Testing. Fraser and her team recently hosted over 70 turfgrass professionals from around the region for a turfgrass field day. Representatives from North Carolina State University, the University of Tennessee, the University of Georgia, and Mississippi State University were all on hand to observe the latest and greatest turfgrass varieties. According to Fraser, a turfgrass breeder’s primary responsibility is to reduce required inputs including pesticides, water and mowing.
The Rolesville farm is in an ideal location for turfgrass pathology as disease pressure is very high. Gray leaf spot is the primary lethal pathogen on turf-type tall fescue and summer patch is the primary pathogen on bluegrass in North Carolina. Fraser and her team are breeding for resistance to these pathogens. If a turfgrass is resistant to summer patch or gray leaf spot in Rolesville, it will be very successful in most places. The farm boasts many varieties of turfgrass breeding projects including bluegrass, bermudagrass, tall fescue, zoysiagrass and creeping bentgrass. Their team is also involved in the Turfgrass Water Conservation Alliance (TWCA), which is looking at drought-tolerant turfgrasses. Turfgrass breeders are critical leaders in water conservation and management.
Many factors are involved in developing new warm-season and cool-season turfgrass varieties. Function, texture, water and sunlight requirements, color, disease resistance, growth habit and many other characteristics all guide selection decisions, but new turfgrasses also must be scalable. This means that a new turfgrass could have every desirable trait in the world but if it can’t produce large amounts of viable seed or establish into transportable sod, it won’t find its way into the marketplace. University and private researchers invest millions of dollars and years of work into developing new varieties as part of their ongoing efforts to reduce inputs and improve turfgrass quality under a variety of environmental conditions. Golfers and golf course maintenance professionals everywhere owe them a debt of gratitude for their brilliant work.
Southeast Region Agronomists:
Chris Hartwiger, director, USGA Course Consulting Service – chartwiger@usga.org
Jordan Booth, Ph.D., agronomist – jbooth@usga.org