at The Gardens

A project of the CSU Mesa County Extension Office & the Mesa County Fairgrounds

The Collection of Turfgrass

Kentucky bluegrass, turf-type tall fescue and perennial ryegrass are used for lawns and parks throughout Western Colorado. While these grasses are excellent choices for some situations, other grasses are available that might require less water and still tolerate our hot summers and dry winters. In order to test these grasses and blends of different grasses a series of plots were planned for the Arboretum. These plots will provide residents in Western Colorado a place to examine these grasses before planting them in their own yards.

Our turfgrass demonstration plots were planted on Friday, July 8, 2005. Each plot is 25 feet square in size. Seed for these plots were provided by Dr. Leah Brilman, Director of Research, Seed Research of Oregon, and Green Fields Seed and Feed of Grand Junction, Colorado.

The following 30 selections were planted twice to permit irrigation under two different watering reqimes. Once these grasses are established the watering schedule will be adjusted to provide moderate and low levels of irrigation to determine how these grasses do under different amounts of water. These two sets of plots are separated by Kentucky bluegrass sod provided by High County Sod, Grand Junction, CO. Both ends of this series of plots are High Country sod.

1.Tall fescue - KY-31
2.Tall Fescue - a blend of improved turf-types SR8550, SR8600 and Grande II
3. Kentucky bluegrass - a common type called Kenblue
4. Kentucky bluegrass - a blend of improved turf types selected for greater stress tolerance - SR2284, Kingfisher, Quantum Leap & Arcadia
5. Texas X Kentucky Bluegrass hybrid - SRX2LM95
6. Kentucky bluegrass/Texas bluegrass blend - 8% SR2100 Kentucky bluegrass & 92% tall fescue blend of SR8600, SR8550 & Grande II
7. Texas X Kentucky bluegrass hybrid (SRX2LM95) & tall fescue blend (SR8600, SR8550 & Grande II)
8. Perennial ryegrass/tall fescue/Kentucky bluegrass blend - 75% Tall fescue blend of SR8600, SR8550 & Grande II, 15% SR4220 perennial ryegrass, & 10% SR2100 Kentucky Bluegrass
9. Perennial ryegrass/Kentucky bluegrass blend - 85% SR4220 perennial reygrass & 15% Kentucky bluegrass blend of SR2284, Kingfisher, Quantum Leap and Arcadia
10. Perennial ryegrass/Kentucky bluegrass blend - 50% SR4220 perennial ryegrass, & 50% Kentucky bluegrass blend of SR2284, Kingfisher, Arcadia & Quantum Leap
11. Perennial ryegrass improved turf type Champion GQ - equal amounts of SR4220, SR4350, Penquin & SR4420
12. Hard fescue - SR3150
13. Strong creeping red fescue - SR5201
14. Slender creeping red fescue - Dawson E
15. Chewing fescue - SR5100
16. Common Canadian red fescue
17. Fine fescue blended with perennial ryegrass - 50% fine fescue blend of SR3150, SR5100 & SR5210, & 50% SR4220 Perennial ryegrass
18. Fine fescue blended wih perennial ryegrass and Kentucky bluegrass - 60% fine fescue blend of SR3150, SR5100 & SR5210, 20% SR2284 Kentucky bluegrass & 20% SR4220 perennial ryegrass
19. Rocky's Ball Park Mix -15% Kentucky bluegrass & 85% perennial ryegrass
20. Bronco Turf - 80% turf-type tall fescue, 10% Kentucky bluegrass & 10% perennial ryegrass
21. Fults alkaligrass
22. Fine fescue blended with buffalograss - the fine fescue blend consists of SR3150, SR5210 & SR5100
23. Common buffalograss
24. Yukon bermudagrass
25. LaPaloma bermudagrass
26. Imperial buffalograss
27. PennBluff buffalograss
28. Compadre Zoysiagrass
29. Zenith Zoysiagrass
30. Blue grama grass

1. Low Grow Wildflower Mix
2. Sodar Streambank Wheatgrass
3. Emerald Planet - 100% Tall Fescue
4. Playground - 50% perennial ryegrass, 10% Kentucky bluegrass, 10% creeping red fescue & 30% chewings fescue
5. Greenfield's Blue - 100% Kentucky bluegrass (5 varieties)
6. Colorado's Own - 50% perennial ryegrass (2 varieties), 25% creepng red fescue & 25% Kentucky bluegrass (2 varieties)
7. Earth Turf - 100% perennial ryegrass (2 varieties)

The turf plots on August 12, 2005. Each plot is 5 feet x 5 feet.