Comparison of the New Southern Chinch Bug-Resistant Lines with Commercial Cultivars of St. Augustinegrass

摘要

St. Augustinegrass [Stenotaphrum secundatum (Walt.) KuntzeJ is a warm season turfgrass and is widely used for lawns and landscapes in the southern United States of America. The southern chinch bug (Blissusinsularis Barber) is the most damaging insectof St. Augustinegrass. Use of resistant cultivars is an environmentally sound and sustainable method to control this insect pest. Two newly identified resistant St. Augustinegrass lines (NUF3231 and NUF4872) were compared with three commercial cultivarsfor turfgrass quality and other important traits. The two lines had turf color and turf visual quality similar to those of Captiva and similar to or better than those ofFloratam and Palmetto during the experiment. NUF4872 had higher level of resistance to gray leaf spot than Floratam and Palmetto. Stolon architectures ofNUF3231 were similar to those of Captiva whereas NUF4872 had the stolons similar to those of Floratam. The results indicated that the two lines could potentially be released as commercial cultivars for use on lawns to battle against the southern chinch bug.