Trialling Turf in the Tropical North

Turf is an essential part of the Australian landscape and choosing a variety for your specific climate and use is important to get right.

Many different varieties and cultivars are used as a turf cover for lawns, for sporting fields and local council areas. Turf is also integral to some of the most important places around our country, such as parliament house.

The hard work that goes into research and development of these turf varieties can sometimes go unnoticed, but the extensive trial process, usually conducted over many years is critical to their success.

Most of the current varietal stock in Australian trials has come from the University of Georgia, Bladerunner Farms and Texas A & M in the United States. The world’s leading institutes for turf breeding and research.

In Australia, trials and assessments have been conducted on these grasses by the Sports Turf Research Institute (STRI). STRI is the world’s leading research and consultancy organisation for sports turf. STRI manages trial protocols at each of the trial sites in Australia in conjunction with AusGAP, the Australian Genetic Assurance Program for turf. Many of the current grasses under assessment have been in these trial programs since 2016.

While maintaining genetic purity of certified grasses is the primary focus for AusGAP, they also play a big part in the expansion of trial assessments across different geographical and environmental localities. Testing couch grass, buffalo, and zoysia turf varieties in different climate zones provides an insight into their ability to maintain turf quality in a wide range of conditions.

AusGAP is currently working with different organisations on sites located in New South Wales, Victoria, Southeast and North Queensland. AusGAP recently announced the expansion of 12 new varieties chosen by the Sports Turf Research Institute (STRI) to be added to the already extensive trial area in North Queensland on the property of Harden Park Lawns (HPL) in Edmonton QLD. STRI evaluations led to these 12 grasses being selected with superior traits being observed during assessments.

There are now 44 different varieties of buffalo, couch and zoysia under assessment in Northern Queensland. This includes trials on some exciting native zoysia’s, as well as varieties of zoysia japonica, macrantha and matrella, along with sites also in Victoria and Southeast Queensland. It will be interesting to see how these varieties go in North Queensland at HPL given the climates extreme growing conditions of high humidity, rainfall, heat, and cloud cover. Michael and Melissa Denney at HPL are very invested in the trials with the excitement of hopefully finding new varieties suited for their tropical environment.

These new grasses have been subjected to monthly assessments over the last 18 months. Leaf texture, uniformity, density, plant growth and overall appearance all being observed.

Some of the trial grasses have had rust issues and thatching, a lot of seed heads. Michael noted that some other grasses however look like they might be great for the northern tropical and sub-tropical regions, with great lateral growth and minimal vertical growth, minimal thatching and no disease recorded to date. All samples have withstood all chemical applications at various temperatures with no adverse effects, so no trial plots have been removed from the program at this stage.

The trial work will continue for up to another 18 months to collaborate with other site data, with the hope of finding a turf variety or varieties that excel. Consideration will include varietal features that are suitable for applications such as presentation lawn areas, home lawns, fairways, stadium surfaces or putting greens standard. There is always the hope and possibility of finding one specific variety that can deliver the required traits for all applications and in all climates, which would be the ultimate achievement.