The Effect of Acute Drought on Fine Fescue Mixtures Maintained As a Golf Course Fairway.

Fine fescues can provide acceptable turf quality and playability on golf course fairways resulting in lower inputs of water, fertilizer, and pesticides. In spite of these potential benefits, the fine fescues are not widely used as fairway turfgrasses in the northern United States and there has been little research on the performance of these grasses under drought stress. The objective of this experiment was to evaluate fine fescue species and mixtures for performance under acute drought. Twenty-five mixtures were developed with a simplex-centroid design using ‘Treazure II’ Chewings fescue (Festuca rubra ssp. fallax), ‘Beacon’ hard fescue (Festuca trachyphylla), ‘Navigator II’ strong creeping red fescue (Festuca rubra ssp. rubra), ‘Shoreline’ slender creeping red fescue (Festuca rubra ssp. litoralis), and ‘Quatro’ sheep fescue (Festuca ovina). Duplicate trials were seeded in fall 2014 in St. Paul, MN and Madison, WI. Plots were arranged as a randomized complete block design with six replications. A rainout shelter was used to employ a 60 d drought on each trial from 1 July 2015 to 29 August 2015. Data collected included visual turf quality, percent green cover as determined by digital images, chlorophyll index, and soil moisture content. Mixtures that contained large proportions (>33%) of hard fescue and sheep fescue performed best in both trials. On the contrary, mixtures that contained large proportions (>33%) of slender creeping red fescue and strong creeping red fescue performed poorly in both trials.