By Ross Braun, Assistant Professor of Turfgrass and Landscape Management and Director of Rocky Ford Turfgrass Research Center
If you have ever attended a Kansas State University Turfgrass and Landscape Field Day, then you have likely seen a cultivar trial of one or more turfgrass species (Figure 1). The term cultivar is short for “cultivated variety.” The term cultivar, which is commonly used in the turfgrass industry, is equivalent to the term variety, which is more commonly used in other horticultural and agronomic industries. Ongoing breeding efforts in both North America and Europe continue to produce new and improved turfgrass cultivars and then evaluate them at different geographic regions and different management regimes in the U.S. and other countries. Many of these cultivar trials are National Turfgrass Evaluation Program (NTEP) trials. The National Turfgrass Evaluation Program is a non-profit, research program that has worked with Kansas State University and 35+ other land-grant universities or agricultural colleges across the U.S. and Canada for the last 40+ years. This organization organizes trials with collaborators, like Kansas State University turfgrass scientists, to host 5-year trials to collect data on turfgrass quality throughout the growing season, disease, insect, and other pest tolerance, and many other turfgrass characteristics. This data is annually compiled from multiple locations, usually 10 to 20 locations or more, statistical analysis is performed, and then results are freely available for everyone on their website.
K-State scientists like me, Dr. Fry, Dr. Keeley, Dr. Griffin, and others have collaborated with NTEP and volunteered to host trials at our research sites for multiple reasons. First, it allows us to stay updated with the newest cultivars that are becoming available so we can better inform you and students in the classroom. Secondly, it is also a way we volunteer our time, effort, and expertise to serve the industry for the greater good. Trust me, while NTEP does provide some funding for collaborators to host these 5-year trials at research farms, it is barely enough to cover expenses of plot maintenance (mowing, fuel, fertilizer, pesticides, labor). Regardless, the data generated from these NTEP cultivar trials is vital. Collaborators provide non-biased evaluation of the plots throughout the growing season. For example, many trials have between 50 to 100 cultivars, repeated three times (3 replications), thus a total of 150 to 300 grass plots in one trial. Therefore, while we are outside and rating the plots, we do not know what cultivar is in that specific plot at the time of rating.
One negative is that the National Turfgrass Evaluation Program website (www.NTEP.org) is a bit clunky and can be difficult to navigate and comprehend, especially for first-time users (Figure 2). Again, this is a non-profit organization working with very little money and resources, so there have been minimal improvements in website functionality in the last 10 years. One new feature is available on the NTEP website. Once you agree with their statement on the first landing page and enter their homepage, you will see “NTEP Turfgrass Database is available now” near the top middle of the page above reports (Figure 2). This link will describe a new search tool interface called “Turfgrass Trial Explorer,” which was created by a team of computer and turfgrass scientists at the University of Minnesota, hence the link address being https://maps.umn.edu/ntep/ (Figure 3). Once you start using the new Turfgrass Trial Explorer, you can quickly see the advantages and ease of searching specific past trials, individual cultivar performance, turfgrass species, or specific turfgrass traits. While the old NTEP site still works and is updated, this new interface may also help you find the best cultivars for Kansas, another state, or overall averages. This new tool also helps highlight top-performing statistical groups in green for each location and overall table averages (Figure 4).
Individuals and companies use the information generated by these NTEP trials in thirty countries, including plant breeders, turfgrass researchers, and extension personnel. Local and state government entities, such as parks and highway departments, use NTEP for locating resource-efficient varieties. The reason I am talking about all this is that I am trying to show you the importance of doing a little “homework” before purchasing new turfgrass seed or sod. It is important to do a little homework and investigation on the NTEP website to make the best selections of the top available cultivars when purchasing. Cultivars that are “top-performing” are new and improved cultivars that will improve your turfgrass sites with higher turf quality and density, often they have greater stress (heat and drought) tolerance, lower fertilizer and water requirements, or fewer pest problems than older, less-improved cultivars. In summary, they will help make your job easier and likely require less inputs (fertilizer, water, pesticides). Overall, NTEP remains the standard for turfgrass cultivar evaluation in the U.S. and many other countries worldwide. I hope you see the benefits of using this free NTEP data to discover top-performing cultivars available at the time of purchase when overseeding or renovating to make your job easier when managing these grasses in the future.
