Evaluation of warm season turfgrasses for various qualitative and quantitative traits under Gujarat agro-climatic conditions

An experiment was carried out to evaluate different turfgrass species and varieties for the morphological characters under south Gujarat agro-climatic condition. Wide range of variation among the 13 genotypes of turfgrasses was recorded with respect to bio-agronomical and quality characteristics. Among the various characters, minimum days to 90 per cent establishment and deepest root were observed in Cynodon dactylon Local, which was at par with C. dactylon x C. transvaalensis Tifdwarf. Lowest canopy height, shortest average stolon internodal diameter, highest shoot density, narrowest leaf width and slowest VLGR were recorded in Zoysia tenuifolia. Maximum cumulative fresh clipping yield and minimum value of stolon internodal length were registered in Tifdwarf. Z. tenuifolia, Z. matrella and Tifdwarf showed very fine texture of leaves, whereas the latter also showed consistently good average turf quality rating and chlorophyll content in the whole period of experimentation. Under south Gujarat agro-climatic condition, C. dactylon L. x C. transvaalensis Tifdwarf performed best in most of turf quality parameters and can be subjected to further functional quality trials for sports and athletic turf.