Drought defenders

Drought. That word is a source of concern for a lot of people. Millions of Americans are being impacted by drought conditions and the number seemingly increases with each passing day.

But those in the turf industry have been dealing with the situation for some time. And while their solutions may not resolve every drought-related issue, a roadmap has been created that may be the golf industry’s route to survival in the months and years to come.

Dr. Leah Brilman has devoted more than three decades to turf research. She is presently the director of research and technical services for Seed Research of Oregon.

Brilman and her colleagues have devoted considerable time and energy to develop strains of turfgrass that will survive, if not thrive, in extremely dry conditions. But she says it’s only been in recent years that the industry has been paying attention.

“I would do some projects that looked at drought resistance,” Brilman says. “Then, it seemed liked nobody thought it was that important; it was important that [the turf] be dark green dwarf or high-intensity. And nobody would be willing to pay more or pay the same for something that was drought resistant.

“Early on in my career, it was kind of frustrating because even then I thought long term, this is where we’re going to have to be. So now people are starting to really pay attention.”

Murray Wingate is in charge of turfgrass sales for Lebanon Turf Products, which is headquartered in Lebanon, Pa, in the heart of the Mid-Atlantic transition zone. Wingate says the strains of turf that have reached the market in the last decade have been bred to survive in drought-like conditions.

“The varieties that have come out over the last 10 years use less water than the varieties that were used 20, 30 or 50 years ago,” he says, “They have a package of things that were bred into them. They have better disease resistance and they are more drought tolerant.

“I think those varieties have been out there for a little while now and people have experience with them. They look in terms of ‘How is this going to perform for me so I can use less water?’”

Water is at the crux of all this. Increasingly, superintendents are searching for ways to use less of it, largely by choice, but sometimes by necessity. As this story was being prepared, the state of California was in the process of imposing mandatory water-use restrictions.

But those who maintain turf for a living have almost universally made it a practice to be judicious about their water usage. And with drought conditions becoming more prevalent around the country, Wingate says superintendents are being more careful than ever.

“We’re probably just in the beginning stage of people who are thinking more about the drought tolerant component,” he says, “because of more prolonged drought periods. Before, it was primarily turf quality. [But] if drought tolerance isn’t higher on the totem pole, it is being thought about some more.”

With that in mind, golf facilities are increasingly seeking out strains of turfgrass that will survive and thrive in drier climates. Seed Research of Oregon and Lebanon Turf have joined forces with Mountain View Seeds in Salem, Ore., and multiple other players in the turf industry, including several academic institutions, to launch the Alliance for Low Input Sustainable Turf or A-List.

This non-profit initiative is devoted to “Fostering development of sustainable turfgrass varieties and related products that perform their function with less maintenance inputs, thus benefiting the environment.”

In golf terms, this translates to developing strains of grass that will hold up not only under the stress of a dry climate but also under the demands of the sport.

“We still think the turf needs to be functional,” Brilman says. “If you’re on a golf course, it needs to use less water, but it also has to be wear-tolerant enough to take maybe 50,000 rounds a year. So you can’t sacrifice everything for drought.

“Breeding is a balancing act between multiple things. It can’t just be drought tolerant. It also has to have adequate turf quality and it also has to be disease resistant. If you get a disease like brown patch in tall fescue, I don’t care how drought tolerant it is, if it’s got brown patch, it’s not going to retain its drought tolerance.”

Kevin Morris serves as the executive director of the National Turfgrass Evaluation Program. Based in Baltimore, Morris oversees turfgrass evaluation trials for the United States Department of Agriculture. Morris notes more heat-tolerant grasses being used in cooler climates. In the Mid-Atlantic transition zone, tall fescue is becoming a viable alternative to Kentucky bluegrass.

“Tall fescue is being used much more in the Northeast and North Central Plains states than ever in the past.” he says. “It’s amazing how far north it’s being tried and even recommended by extension people. It’s too soon to tell if it’s going to be a lasting trend, but it’s definitely being used farther north than would have been 20 or 25 years ago.”

Morris is also seeing the increased use of Bermuda and Zoysia grasses, which are more commonly found in warmer climates, in lieu of bentgrass. It would not be totally unexpected to find a facility in the transition zone with Bermuda greens, for instance.

On the West Coast, Brilman has seen positive results with new strains of creeping bentgrass. In the East, Rutgers University is conducting its own ongoing series of trials with bentgrass.

Brilman notes that because of differences in the climate, a methodology that works in one part of the country will not necessarily be successful in another.

“In the East, most years, they get summer rains,” she says. “So what we want for something that is more drought tolerant is often something that will stay green longer or will green most of the time. It won’t go totally dormant, and then, as soon as it gets another rainfall, it bounces back to full greenness. So you can almost make it persist without irrigation in some areas.

“In the Western U.S., it doesn’t work that way. Even in Oregon, we get rains in the winter, but we get no summer rains … We will go at least 100 days without rain. And in most of the rest of the Western United States, they don’t even get as much winter rain as we do, so there is always going to be irrigation requited. So what you’ve got to ask yourself is: How little water can you apply and still maintain that functional turf?”

Brilman says over the past five years or so she has noticed a growing trend toward superintendents in her part of the country using moisture meters on their putting surfaces. “They really know how much moisture they have in that green,” she says, “and whether they should irrigate instead of automatically turning it on and having it cycle X number of times during the week. It makes them better water stewards on their greens.”

Turf-related decisions have wide-ranging ramifications for superintendents. Apart from the issues related to drought resistance and durability, they must be conscious of their bottom line.

Tracy Mathis, the superintendent at LuLu Country Club outside Philadelphia, has embraced Regenerating Perennial Ryegrass, or RPR for short. Mathis first encountered this species when she was working in the Carolinas a few years back. It was first introduced in the U.S. in 2010 and in Europe two years later, where it is used in a number of soccer stadiums.

Mathis uses RPR on her roughs and fairways and finds it an effective countermeasure to drought and stress-related issues when a quick recovery is needed. “This particular rye was producing psudostolons,” she says, “and reproduced a heck of a lot faster [than traditional ryegrass]. Their growth shoots emerge from auxiliary buds at the base of each plant. They root down and they can also produce another plant. This trait is not usually observed in regular ryegrass.”

Mathis is particularly impressed with the strain’s durability. “It’s very wear-tolerant,” she says. “Just like any other rye, it generates really, really, quick. It actually fills in a bigger area because of the fact that it can grow laterally, which ryegrass is not known for.”

Mathis points out that RPR, which is extremely heat and traffic tolerant, is particularly useful at venues with bentgrass fairways plagued by heat stress.

“In the heat of the summer, there isn’t time to see if bent is going to fill in quickly,” she says. “You need it to fill in those scars quickly. The fact that it will grow laterally allows it to fill in a bigger area in a very short amount of time. It’s also very affordable.”

For Mathis, RPR proved effective. Every superintendent, of course, is dealing with their own unique circumstances. But thanks to some forward-thinking researchers and turfgrass scientists, they have the tools they need to deal with those circumstances.

Rick Woelfel is a Willow Grove, Pa.-based writer and frequent GCI contributor.