Perennial Rye Improvements.

I still Drive a 38 Year Old EH Holden Because Cars Never Change.

In this blog, we delve into improvements in sports turf perennial ryegrass seed. Then we discuss the differences between perennial rye and VNS ryegrass in growing grass from seed.

Just because something is old doesn’t mean it stops working. Things do improve over time.

Three things are true when with perennial rye:

• ‘’Because it’s old doesn’t mean it doesn’t work.’’
• “Technology always improves.’’
• ‘’Because you have always done things one way doesn’t mean you can’t do it better. We are always learning.’’

All these statements apply to turf seed, and even more so with sports turf ryegrass. In the sports turf industry, you use perennial rye to quickly grow grass from seed and overseed warm-season turf. Our recent blog on grass seed for oversowing couch may be of more interest on this topic.

When companies introduce new fungicide chemistry it always seems to grab the headlines. This contrasts with advances in sports turf seed that seem to ‘’slip through the cracks’’. I don’t ever recall anyone excited about a disease resistant perennial ryegrass. A turf registered nematicide..possibly. A disease resistant ryegrass…naaah.

As responsible environmental stewards we think the fact that Turf Managers rarely consider disease resistance when they choose a perennial rye variety is quite strange. This is despite a fungicide costing around $1000/Ha in comparison to a variety with increased brown patch resistance possibly costing an extra 0.1c/Kg?

But surely it should be if Managers budgets become tighter?

VNS Perennial Rye Seed

Seed Testing.

In Europe and the USA, regular independent trials assess seed variety performance. The aim is to help the end user make an informed decision so they can choose the best cultivar for their site. For example this is the 2025 STRI Seeds Booklet.

Research like this guarantees that new perennial rye varieties like Intense PRG perform as you expect with high wear tolerance, great disease resistance and reduced water use. It’s also a reason why varieties like this are included in the most recent low input A-List.

How To Choose A Sports Turf Perennial Rye?

There are several tools you can use to make an informed choice. These range from user feedback to independent trial data from Europe and the USA.

STRI Turfgrass Seed Booklet.

The 1981 Turf Seed Guide¹The Turfgrass Seed guide, 1981,https://archive.lib.msu.edu/tic/seed/pdf/turse1981.pdf shows a complete list of perennial ryegrass cultivars.

It ranks cultivars by several criteria. These include how they perform under wear, their colour and their disease resistance.

These trials show that breeding has lead to big advances in turf-type perennial ryegrass.

As far as we are aware, the oldest commercial variety that until recently was still sold in Australia was Caravelle. That’s some 44 years after it was in the 1981 seeds book.

The interesting thing is that 44 years ago, it didn’t perform well in several selection criteria.

Pickseed.

In 1984, the table below ranks 34 perennial rye cultivars on several criteria. With thanks to G. Pepin, The Director of Research at Pickseed West .

Again, Caravelle doesn’t perform well apart from it has a good colour.

In a 1988 trial²Kopec D.M., Mancino, C.F., Petty, M,J., and Salo. L., Ryegrass Turf Trials for 1987 -1988, https://repository.arizona.edu/bitstream/handle/10150/215849/370075-013-020.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y , on the winter performance of ryegrass cultivars on a couch fairway, Caravelle after a slow establishment, keels over once the temperature increases.

This in fact became its main selling point as a transitional perennial rye in Australia.

Current Choices.

Caravelle was not included in the last completed sports turf perennial ryegrass trials in NZ ( 2005-2007 New Zealand ryegrass trials) or in the 2007-2008 ANTEP Trials.

So where does that leave us now? With no trials in Australia since 2007-2008 we are relying on very old data or information out of the USA or Europe.

2025 Sports Turf Perennial Rye Options in Australia.

How Do you Find the Best turf seed?

How to find the best perennial rye seed? Suppose you have to choose a turfgrass for your sports turf facility or lawn. How would you find out what is the best variety for your site?

Historically, the only means of getting information has been via company brochures or through reps.

The National Turfgrass Evaluation Program (NTEP) in the USA has large volumes of field-experiment data since the 1980s.

This independent data is from numerous locations in the USA about the performance and characteristics of turfgrass cultivars under a variety of conditions (e.g., colour, disease resistance).

Perennial ryegrass, tall fescue, bentgrass and couch are just some of the grasses evaluated.

This new search feature helps answer questions like:

• What cultivars require the least mowing?
• What has the best colour?
• Which cultivars have the best wear tolerance?

Simply go to https://maps.umn.edu/ntep/ and search by cultivar or trial date and variety.

You can then carry out an unbiased evaluation for an entire range of criteria.

Conclusion

When you choose perennial rye seed, why use old ryegrass technology? In some cases, you can pay top dollar to grow grass from seed from varieties that are over 35 years old.

Far better varieties now exist which:

• Easily transition out.
• Are less disease-prone (saving you upwards of $1000/Ha on fungicides).
• Have better colour
• Use less water and
• Have higher wear tolerance.