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Establishment of Two Bermudagrasses in Three Soil Environments

Dep. of Crop Science; North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC 27695-7620

L. A. Nelson and J. V. Hall

Dep. of Statistics, North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC 27695-8203
NC Ag. Ext. Serv. Courthouse Annex, Sanford, NC 27330

^* Corresponding author.

Tifton 44 hybrid bermudagrass [Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers.], has been reported to be more cold tolerant and to give better animal gains than the hybrid Coastal. It has been observed that Tifton 44 has not established as rapidly as Coastal, frequently taking 2 to 3 yr to achieve complete ground cover. The objective of this work was to determine and quantify differences in the field establishment of Coastal and Tifton 44 grown at three locations for 2 yr on clayey, kaolinitic, thermic Typic Hapludult (Cecil and Mayodan) and loamy, siliceous, thermic Grossarenic (Blanton) soils in North Carolina. A single row of sprigs was set in the center and the length of each 3.1- by 6.2-m plot. Establishment effects were measured by weekly counts of the number of tillers/stolons intercepting a series of transect lines spaced at 0.15-m intervals on both sides of the sprigged row, and by harvesting the forage produced at the end of the season in 0.30- by 6.1-m increments from the center to the border of each plot. Two establishment indices were developed as the response variables from the transect count data. Analyses of variance were conducted on yield, establishment indices, and on spring ground cover estimates. Yield of forage and establishment characteristics were similar for Coastal and Tifton 44 on the Mayodan soil, but Coastal established more rapidly and produced more forage than Tifton 44 on the Cecil soil in both years of the trial and on the Blanton soil during the first year. In three of six trials, Tifton 44 would have required a 0.3- to 0.6-m row spacing to equal the coverage obtained by Coastal in a 0.9- to 1.2-m row spacing.

Received for publication August 13, 1990.