Barenbrug Golf Green Trials

MAIN FINDINGS Standard maintenance practices with wear adversely affect a pure red fescue green. Results Fescues At Bingley, botanical composition of the plots was recorded throughout the trial. Figure 5 shows fescue proportions from the readings of the 100% red fescue plots under standard and low input maintenance. Under standard input, the red fescue proportion of the plots reduced steadily over the course of the trial; in the first botanical survey the plots contained 83% red fescue, but by the end of the trial this had lowered to only 47%. Poa annua ingression was the most prevalent result. The graph highlights two important points; firstly that the red fescue plots diminished in quality more quickly under standard input than low input and secondly that fescue probably requires relatively high inputs initially to successfully establish. The results from the Druids Glen trial raise an interesting discussion point. Table 5 shows the high visual merit scores and low Poa ingression of the red fescue plots under standard maintenance. Remember that wear simulation was not applied to the Druids plots. The mowing height in this trial (down to 3mm) was actually lower than that of Bingley (4mm), which leads to a tentative conclusion that it is the combination of wear (particularly during winter) and a low height of cut that leads to problems with a fescue sward rather than a low mowing height alone. Figure 5: Fescue composition of 100% fescue plots after over 4 years trialling under standard and low input maintenance regimes at Bingley. Treatment % Poa 02/11/11 Mean Visual Merit BAR ALL BENT browntop bent 9.7 5.8 100% BarKing browntop bent 7.0 4.0 100% Bengal creeping bent 17.7 3.8 BAR DUO 50:50 browntop:creeping 16.3 4.3 100% AS 0803 creeping bent 10.7 4.5 50:50 Bengal:AS 0803 creeping bent 12.7 4.8 50:50 Penn A4;Penn G6 14.7 5.3 BAR 2 (80% red fescue:20% browntop bent) 8.7 7.2 BAR FESCUE 6.3 7.3 Table 5: Poa annua ingression and visual merit of all plots at Druids Glen trial. Note performance of fescue mixtures in red 8 Golf Greens