2008 Joint Annual Meeting (5-9 Oct. 2008): Bermudagrass Cultivars Differ in Their Traffic Tolerance.

Bermudagrass is the most widely used turfgrass species for golf courses and sports fields in the southern U.S. and transition zone. Continuous trafficking from play or equipment can reduce bermudagrass coverage and turf quality. This study evaluated 42 bermudagrass cultivars (30 commercially available cultivars, 12 experimental lines) for their traffic tolerance. Traffic was applied for a four week period in summer and fall with a Cady traffic simulator in Fayetteville, AR to determine differences in traffic tolerance. A similar study was also conducted in the fall of 2007 in Griffin, GA, using a Brinkman traffic simulator. In Arkansas, seventeen commercially available cultivars were rated highest in summer traffic tolerance including ‘Barbados', ‘Contessa', ‘Midlawn', ‘Panama', ‘Patriot', ‘Princess 77', ‘Riviera', ‘Sovereign', ‘Sultan', ‘Sunbird', ‘Sunsport', ‘Southern Star', ‘Sundevil II', ‘Tifsport', ‘Transcontinental', ‘Veracruz', and ‘Yukon'. The commercially available cultivars ‘Arizona Common', ‘Ashmore', and ‘Aussie Green' were found to have poor traffic tolerance. This study demonstrates that a range of traffic tolerance exists among currently-available bermudagrass cultivars