Performance of Fine Fescues Under Abrasive Wear during Three Seasons.

Fine fescues (Festuca spp.) are low maintenance grasses with better shade and drought tolerance compared to other cool-season grasses. The effect of season on the tolerance of fine fescues to wear is not well understood. This field research evaluated the performance of fine fescues under abrasive wear in spring (April to June), summer (July to August), and autumn (September to October), respectively. Three trials were conducted each using a 2 x 10 factorial split-plot design with 4 replications. The main plot factor in each trial was the season that wear was applied (spring, summer or autumn) compared to an untreated control. The subplot factor consisted of ten fine fescues entries seeded September 2012 on a loam in North Brunswick, NJ. The trial was mowed at 6.4 cm and irrigated to avoid severe drought stress. Pests were controlled as needed. Abrasive wear was applied using the Rutgers wear simulator and consisted of eight passes (one pass per week for eight weeks per season) from 2013 to 2015. Uniformity of turf cover, fullness of turf canopy (FTC) and leaf bruising were visually rated at the end of each season of wear. Data were analyzed as a 2 x 10 split-plot design. As expected, abrasive wear bruised leaf tissue and reduced turf uniformity and fullness of cover in all seasons. Across all seasons of wear, ‘Beacon’ hard fescue (F. brevipila R. Tracey) was the only consistently top-ranked entry for the most uniform cover and greatest FTC; whereas, ‘Seabreeze GT’ slender creeping red fescue (F. rubra L. var. littoralis Vasey ex Beal) always exhibited the poorest uniformity and FTC. Leaf bruising was a more variable characteristic across seasons and among entries.