Turf Breeding Warms Up - Specialist Sporting Couches - Australia

Specialist Sporting Couches - Australia

These are varieties that usually have internodes of between 20mm and 37mm that without good green keeping practices thatch badly, particularly in warmer climates like Perth, Sydney, Adelaide, and Brisbane. These types are generally better suited to higher maintenance sporting facilities and are poorly suited to hack ovals and general amenity areas that get spasmodic maintenance.

These varieties, as expected, often do well in sports turf evaluations. When looking at evaluations like these, please keep in mind that the testing is for turf types for high maintenance facilities. Rarely do you see the plots not being mown for 2 weeks, or mown at higher height, which happens all the time in the real world on hack ovals and some golf courses, and most amenity areas. In the sporting turf trials, please remember also that often many of the All Rounders do well. In the next issue we will look at the two categories of the All Rounders.

Windsor Green – Bred by the well renowned turf scientist Peter McMaugh. This couch just fits into the specialist sporting couch section as its internode was right on the cut off. It could be argued this could fit into the All Rounder category, but I think it belongs here. After talking to Queensland growers I think in the warmer areas it does need regular mowing at a low height to keep higher quality.

It has been around for quite a while, having its Plant Breeders Rights granted in 1994. This turf seems to spread well by stolons, and less by rhizomes. It has a lower salt tolerance than most other couch types, but has good wear tolerance withstanding abrasion due to its high fibre content, but recovery can be slow at times. It has been used on many sporting facilities with mixed results, many loving it, with some not so happy. There is no couch that works everywhere, so this is to be expected.

Grand Prix – This is a new kid on the block, but seems to be quickly getting a following amongst high maintenance high profile sporting venues. ´Grand Prix´ resulted from a program of crossing and back crossing other C. dactylon varieties to ´Wintergreen´. Breeder: David Nickson, Victoria. It’s internode in my trials seems to be quite a bit shorter than Windsor green, and Santa Ana. It is a very dense grass with high shoot density. Without regular green keeper maintenance, I found it thatches, but in high maintenance sporting facilities this is a benefit. Grand Prix achieves good coverage of bare ground due to its many branching stolons and strong rhizome development. It is a sparsely seeding variety, producing only a few short seed heads relative to other couch cultivars.

Santa Ana – An old favourite of sporting venues in Melbourne. Here it is liked for its density and good winter activity. Many still claim this is the best grass for sporting venues in Melbourne. In the warmer climates it is generally disliked due to the high amount of thatch build up, although some higher maintenance sporting facilities still use it in Sydney. In Queensland its high thatch build up makes it a poor choice. In WA and SA it is a specialist grass, and like elsewhere it needs regular short mowing. Santa Ana was developed by the University of California in the 1970′s.

Winter Gem – This short internode couch was selected for its winter quality and colour retention for Victoria. This has shorter internodes than most other varieties in this group. This grass will probably be better suited to a cooler climate and require very regular short mowing. It seems to mow well down to 6mm with a cylinder mower. This is a new release and was bred by David Nickson.

Oz-E-Green – In my evaluations I found this grass to be a little different in that it seemed to stay shorter without mowing, and seemed to go longer without a trim. However, I still believe after a while thatch management needs to be addressed with this grass, particularly in warmer climates. It seems to scalp a little less than the others in this group when mown less frequently, but due to its very short internode, I still think it should be considered mainly as a grass for higher maintenance sporting facilities, although it may not grow fast enough to handle the wear. It will take longer than most in this group to build up thatch, but eventually it will. I think this grass could have good potential for certain sporting facilities in Queensland. It also has good salt tolerance.

TifSport - Bred at Tifton by the University of Georgia and the USDA in a program led by Dr Wayne Hanna. This Couch has become a very popular choice for sporting facilities in the USA. As with most other grasses in this category TifSport is good for Sportsfields (including soccer, rugby union and rugby league fields), golf course fairways and green surrounds. It is unsuited to golf course roughs as TifSport does not perform well at higher mowing heights. This dense fine textured couch turf is tolerant of low mowing heights to 4 mm, and maintains good quality at 12 mm and 25 mm. It does not maintain good quality at greater mowing heights. TifSport was selected for superior cold tolerance (survives very cold temperatures) for regions that get colder than most parts of Australia, retaining colour in cooler nights, becoming light green near freezing. For regions like Melbourne TifSport has long winter dormancy, but responds quickly to warmer temperatures in spring. TifSport has excellent wear tolerance and recovers from wear well, but has poor salt tolerance. It is mainly grown in Queensland.

Hatfield is another couch that may be best categorised into this group, but it is not easily available so there is not much reason to talk about it. Plateau could possibly fit here as well, but my experience with this grass says it needs to fit into the All Rounder category.

The grasses in the specialist sporting couch category do need regular short mowing, and as such make good selections for high maintenance sporting facilities. For venues like golf courses where the Couch needs to be used on fairways and roughs, personally I think the All Rounders make a better choice unless they are used for fairways only and another grass is chosen for the roughs. To be used on roughs, a higher mowing height is needed, and these specialist short internode Couch types do not do well when mown taller. Theses shorter internode Couch types are also generally poor for over-sowing, where as medium to longer internode Couches lend them self to over-seeding with Rye. In the next issue we will look at the Couch All Rounders for both southern and northern regions of Australia, and blue Couch turf types for Queensland.

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Author: Todd Layt