Preliminary Results Concerning the Development of Native Warm-Season Turfgrass Mixes for Sod Production in the South Central Great Plains.

There is a growing interest in the use of native warm-season turfgrasses and their mixes for lawn and landscape use in the southern Great Plains. These grasses are occasionally being used as alternatives to warm-season introduced species such as bermudagrass (Cynodon species). Both clonally propagated buffalograss cultivars and seeded buffalograsses are available as sod using reinforcement netting in sod production. While seeded warm-season turfgrass native mixes are available for purchase, no information is available concerning their use in sod production. Architects specifying native warm-season mixes often request that no reinforcement netting be used in the sod product. The objectives of this research project were to examine the potential for development of sod from seeded mixes of ‘Texoka’ American buffalograss (Bouteloua dactyloides), ‘Alma’ bluegrama (B. gracilis) and variety not stated curly mesquite (Hilaria belangeri) without the use of reinforcement netting to improve sod tensile strength. Seeded mixes tested included 100% buffalograss, 75% buffalograss/25% bluegrama, 50% buffalograss/50% bluegrama, 75% bluegrama/25% buffalograss, 100% bluegrama, and finally a mixture of 75% bluegrama/20% buffalograss/5% curly mesquitegrass. All seeded mixes were found to have unacceptable sod handling quality and could not be tested for sod tensile strength at 13 and 21 months of age. Additional research will be performed in the future in an attempt to produce mixtures of these species without the use of reinforcement netting.