Standardization of seed rates for turf establishment under mid hill conditions

Abstract

The present investigations were carried out at the experimental farm of Department of Floriculture and Landscape Architecture, Dr. Y.S. Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan, (HP) during 2020- 21. The experiment was laid out in a randomized block design with three replications. Experiment consisted of four genotype(s) of lawn grasses including ‘Lolium perenne’, ‘Agrostis stolonifera’, ‘‘Festuca rubra’’ and ‘‘Cynodon dactylon’’ with five different seed rates for quality turf establishment. Amongst the different seed rates used, standard seed rate (S1 ) and 5% increased seed rate (S2 ) performed well in all the genotypes used with respect to days taken for turf establishment, total weed count, visual texture, compactness, diseases incidence and appearance. The most presentable lawn with early turf establishment, low weed count, lesser number of mowing required, consistent turf colour, fine leaf texture, compactness, less diseases incidence and overall appearance was observed in ‘Agrostis stolonifera’, when sown with a standard seed rate of 8.00 g/m2 followed by ‘Lolium perenne’ sown with a standard seed rate of 38.00 g/m2 .