A COMPARISON OF TURFGRASSES FOR CEMETERIES AND OTHER LOW-INPUT AREAS

摘要

Acceptable turfgrass variety and/or cultivar determination for cemetery or other low-input areas is difficult,especially in transitional climate zones.Turfgrass quality in a cemetery is typically governed by maintenance budget.In addition to a limited overall budget,only a small portion is used for crop protection and the majority is used for mowing and trimming requirements.The objectives of this study were to assess the performance of twelve grassing options and three weed control programs in a low input management system in terms of overall turf quality,weed pressure,and mowing requirement due to either turf or weeds.Highest turfgrass quality was maintained with Meyer zoysiagrass and the tall fescues Kentucky 31 and Matador.Mowing requirement,however,was 75% less for Meyer zoysiagrass (5 mowings per year) than for Kentucky 31 tall fescue (20 mowings per year).Other grasses that generally provided desirable performance characteristics in quality,limited weed pressure,and reduced mowing for a cemetery setting were ‘Reliant II’ hard fescue,and a 95%/5% by weight combination of ‘Barleria’ prairie junegrass plus ‘Baron’ Kentucky bluegrass.Kentucky bluegrasses did not perform well during drought periods and had moderate to high mowing requirements.Tifeagle ultra dwarf bermudagrass had the least mowing requirement but had minimal turf quality.