I'm uh, P-Paul Johnson,
and I'm a p-professor, uh, in the s-seawall group studying, uh studying
and d-doing research with, w-with the turf grasses.
And I'd like to show you the national t-turf grass
ev-evaluation program c-cool season low input trial,
a l-long title for a, a f-fairly small plot.
Th-this is really a test for, the um, the ultra low maintenance.
What things can survive with no fertilizer,
no weed control, but m-most importantly no iri-irigation.
This p-plot has been in for about four years now.
Um, and I'll show ya a few of t-the varieties or t-the species
that have done well year after year, and those that have not.
In general, the best, adapted for these k-kinda conditions,
are the, are t-the wheat grasses.
We have um, inner- inter t-this one r-right here
it's, it's an inter-m-mediate wheat grass.
Um, usually used f-for range lands but it can be a good turf
under t-these kind of conditions.
It will go dormant early, early in the summer,
uh, but then s-survive year after year.
Th-there are, th-there are t-t-t, t-two other w-wheat grasses.
Uh, th-the crusted w-wheatgrass, not quite as thick,
uh but it does, it does, tend to s-survive very well.
This does have some uh, clover mixed in here.
It came in from another plot.
And then, if you wanna c-come over here...
th-this one here is a, is a streambank wheatgrass.
Uh, w-well adapted in our area, um, not as high a quality
as that uh, inter-m-mediate wheatgrass,
but, w-will survive, and c-compete well with weeds.
If you kinda l-look around you can see the plots that s-survived the best,
had the best cover, they don't have many weeds.
T-This one right here, obviously is not doing well, and is f-full of weeds.
So that's kind of the indicator of what really is s-surviving year after year.
W-we d-do have some of the m-more traditional uh, t-turf grasses
in here also, and the b-best one of those
is, is probably the tall f-f-f, are the tall f-fescue entries.
Th-th-this one here is, is a K-Kentucky 31, uh, standard kind of a forage type,
but uh, does survive in our, our location here
because it can root v-very very deeply, and s-s-survive well.
And [stuttering]
Um, and not have, have, any irrigation.
Th-there are other tall f-fescues that range from good,
l-like th-th-this one here, has a b-better color,
but not quite as thick as a Kentucky 31.
Other tall f-f-f, other t-tall uh, t-t-t, t-tall fescues have not done
as, as w-well as th-the one right here.
On the l-l-l, on um, t-the Kentucky bluegrass did survive well
for about the first year or two,
but n-now really only one of the Kentucky b-b-blues,
are, are really keeping their stand.
And th-this one right here is, is t-the old variety ken blue.
Um, it d-does keep a reasonable stand, after th-this amount of time.
Um, but the fine f-fescues, these in front here,
uh, really have not survived well.
They, they lose a lot of their stand, they get clumpy, and then as a result,
uh th-they tend to have a lot of w-weeds that are coming in now.
W-We, have an un- have a, k-kind of an unusual entry
in this t-t-t, in the, in t-this one trial too,
it's a, it's uh, it's a yarrow, typically yarrow
you might find in your, your landscape,
b-but, b-but it was a v-v-v, a v-variety selected t-to be used as a, as a turf.
This one actually.. retains green color the best of all th-these other entries,
um, uh, long into s-s-s, long into th-the summer time.
Um, I'd like to l-look at how well it can, it can tolerate traffic,
but it does, uh keep a good cover, it com-p-petes well with weeds,
and looks reasonably good.
Th-this uh, the uh, the t-trial w-we will have in for the next, say t-two years.
And then we'll continue to, to study these, and e-evaluate these
and g-give recommendations in, on what can really,
be a truly, no maintenance uh, turf in our, in our state.