Kentucky Bluegrass Germplasm for Sustainable Seed Yield.

The objective of the study was to develop Kentucky bluegrasses that have sustainable seed yield without post-harvest field burning and still maintain acceptable turfgrass quality.  This long-term study consisted of 10 Kentucky bluegrass entries; eight are USDA/ARS Plant Introduction (PI) accessions and two are commercial cultivars (‘Kenblue’ and ‘Midnight’).  All entries in previous research had expressed high seed yield without burning of post-harvest residue and good turfgrass quality.  Turfgrass plots were established in 2006 and seed production plots (irrigated and non-irrigated) were established in 2007 at Pullman, WA.  The turfgrass trials were evaluated according to NTEP (National Turfgrass Evaluation Program) protocol.  Seed production plots were harvested (2008-2011) and seed increase plots established in 2011 were harvested in 2012, 2013, and 2014.  Results indicate that PI 368241, selection heads/area, showed the most promise of being able to provide long-term turfgrass seed yield without field burning in both non-irrigated and irrigated seed production.  Kenblue, selection seed/head, had good seed yield and fair turfgrass quality.  PI 371775, selection seed/head, had good turfgrass quality while maintaining good seed yield with irrigation.  In 2012 these selections had good seed yields in seed increase plots.  However, in the Pacific Northwest, in 2013 bluegrass seed yields were considerable below average.  It will be interesting to see if the yields in the dryland seed increase plots were following the regional trend in 2013, or will rebound in seed yield in 2014.