Bentgrass Cultivar Recommendations for Michigan Putting Greens

Bentgrass species are widely used for cool-season golf course putting greens, tees, and fairways. Creeping bentgrass can be maintained at mowing heights as low as 0.1 inch. In September 2003, 26 cultivars and selections of creeping and velvet bentgrass were established at the Hancock Turfgrass Research Center in East Lansing, Michigan. The trial was mowed at 0.125 inches five times per week with either a walk-behind or triplex mower. The native soil green was topdressed every 14- to 21-days throughout the growing season and received 3-4 pounds of nitrogen fertilization per year. Cultivars were visually evaluated for turfgrass quality once per month during the growing season. Components of turfgrass quality include texture, uniformity, color and density. In our analysis, cultivars were ranked on five criteria: frequency above the mean, frequency in the top rated group, frequency in the bottom rated group, overall mean quality and ten state overall quality. Cultivars were assigned a score for each ranking criteria (1=best, 2=average, 3=poor). Cultivars that scored best in all five categories are listed below as recommended cultivars for Michigan (Table 1). Cultivars that scored in the lowest group for all five categories are listed in the not recommended section of the table. The rankings in Table 1 represent data from 2004, 2005 and 2006 only. These trials are conducted under full-sun, non-trafficked conditions. A complete list of cultivars included in this study and additional performance data can be found at www.ntep.org under Michigan State University data.

Submitted by Suleiman Bughrara and Ronald Calhoun
Department of Crop and Soil Sciences
Michigan State University