Bluegrass from Texas generates tough turf

One crop that urban residents share with farmers throughout California is turf. Research leading to improved turf grasses is primarily centered in the state’s agricultural colleges and universities.
A breakthrough that promises to lead to prettier, greener, easier to maintain lawns, golf courses, parks, athletic fields, cemeteries and general landscapes has been reported by a researcher at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, working in conjunction with researchers at California State University, Fresno.
Professor Sowmya Mitra recently completed tests with Texas bluegrass, concluding that this hybrid shows promise for residential applications because of its potential to withstand high temperatures and drought stress.
With the state’s water officials predicting conditions approaching if not reaching drought status, his findings and the availability of this hardy hybrid should delight turf caretakers in urban and rural settings alike.   
Texas bluegrass in its natural state is a pasture grass more appealing to livestock than picnickers and backyard barbecuers. Researchers such as Professor Mitra have been cross breeding it with other popular turf grasses to take advantage of some of its outstanding qualities.
Of course, the goal of the cross breeding process is to capture the attractive features of other grasses too, some tenderness, some restorative aspects to fill in those golf course divots, limited winter dormancy and more.
The seed companies, who are the eventual commercial beneficiaries of the turf research, are vigorously involved. They support the research financially, and their own specialists work beside the college and university personnel in evaluating crosses and planning additional steps.
Seed production is a major agricultural enterprise, but centered in Oregon, not California. The Golden State’s major contribution to luxuriant expanses of turf is sod, stripped from its growing grounds, rolled into manageable lengths and transported to waiting customers to be unrolled and installed as instant lawns.
While Professor Mitra’s research sought a turf grass resistant to leaf rust and leaf spot diseases, other qualities emerged. Texas bluegrass maintains good color throughout the year, and it doesn’t produce a lot of clippings.
One seed company researcher said the Texas bluegrass hybrids have some restorative qualities, not the aggressive regrowth of a bermuda, but far more than the popular Kentucky bluegrass, or even the fescues.
The research by Professor Mitra also included plots at different fertilization rates. The Texas bluegrass hybrids maintained a dark green color and produced fewer clippings compared to traditional tall fescues, even at low fertilization rates.
His work was partly funded by the California Agricultural Technology Institute at California State University, Fresno,  and was reported in CATI’s quarterly publication Update.
Because we walk on turf so often we tend to think of it as being beneath us, perhaps even low down. But the research that leads to beautiful, tough, water thrifty grass occurs at a higher level , up there where the graduate degrees are granted.
Who knows? Texas bluegrass might be named the next valedictorian of turf grasses.

 Don Curlee is an agriculture consultant in the Valley. His column appears each Monday in The Recorder.