Relationship of shoot morphology between seedlings and established turf in creeping bentgrass

Shoot morphological characteristics are important determinants of turf quality in creeping bentgrass. The objectives of this research were to determine differences for tiller and stolen characteristics among creeping bentgrass cultivars and germplasms and compare these characteristics between seedlings and established turf. Two experiments involving 10 and 15 entries were grown in controlled environment chambers and harvested as seedlings at 21, 35 and 49 d and 21, 28 and 35 d, respectively. Nine and fifteen creeping bentgrass entries were grown in separate field experiments on sand-based golf greens and core samples were taken for subsequent measurements at 3 yr and 1 yr, respectively. Tiller and stolen measurements included seedling tillers plant(-1) in the controlled environment; tillers m(-2) on established turf; and leaf number, leaf width, plant height/stolen length, internode length, internode number, and stolen diameter in all experiments. The correlation coefficient for seedling tillers plant(-1) at 35 d between the two controlled environment experiments was r = 0.835 and for tiller density between the two field experiments was r = 0.930. There were differences among the creeping bentgrass entries for tiller number (9.7 to 20.2) and internode length (20 to 54 mm) when measured at 35 d and for tiller density (67 to 227 x 10(3) m(-2)) in established turf. Correlation coefficients between seedling tillers plant(-1) at 35 d and tiller number m(-2) in established turf ranged from r 0.701 to r = 0.826. There was also a high correlation for stolen internode length between seedling and established turf, with r values ranging from r = 0.725 to r = 0.948. These results document differences for tiller and stolen characteristics between creeping bentgrass cultivars and germplasms and indicate the potential for plant improvement of these characteristics in creeping bentgrass using 35-d-old seedlings in a controlled environment.