East Texas breeder developed turfgrass used on World Cup soccer fields
8 Jul, 2010 Athletic Turf News
OVERTON — You might call it a world-class save. To rescue soccer fields being used for the World Cup in South Africa, grounds managers used a turfgrass bred and developed near Overton in East Texas.
(Dr. Lloyd Nelson, image courtesy Texas AgriLife Research)
Dr. Lloyd Nelson, small-grains breeder with Texas AgriLife Research, recently learned that his Panterra turfgrass was used as part of a fast-growing overseeding blend on several South African soccer fields used for the World Cup games.
"It is hard to believe a ryegrass variety bred and developed near Overton, TX, has the desired characteristics to be over-seeded on soccer fields in South Africa," Nelson said. "We selected for traits suitable for over-seeding football and baseball fields during the winter in Texas, never dreaming it might be adaptable all over the world."
AgriLife Research released Panterra in 2003, licensing seed production to Barenbrug USA, Inc., which uses Panterra in its SOS blend.
"SOS stands for Super Over Seeding," Nelson said. "SOS grass is a blend of Panterra and a perennial ryegrass cultivar."
Nelson said Panterra has all the advantages of traditional winter ryegrass turfgrasses with none of the disadvantages, which makes it "a great candidate for sports fields as well as for overseeding homelawns so they'll be green throughout the winter."
"They like Panterra because of its fast establishment, low growing, fine leaf texture and beautiful medium green color, and early spring transition," he said.
In parts of Texas and the southern U.S., it's possible to overseed warm-season grasses, such as Bermudagrass and St. Augustine, with winter ryegrass. But many perennial winter ryegrasses are slow to die out during the spring and may choke out the summer lawn as it struggles to come out of dormancy.
Other ryegrasses, such as TAM 90 or Gulf, were largely developed for winter pastures, and are also fast growing, requiring frequent mowing and should not be over-seeded on lawns, Nelson said.
Nelson, who also developed TAM 90, bred Panterra specifically to avoid these problems. Panterra is a "dwarf" annual ryegrass, which means it doesn't grow very tall. As a dwarf, it requires fewer mowings during winter and spring, he said.
"Better yet, it dies off in mid-to late-May throughout most of Texas, and it doesn't compete as much with Bermuda grass or St. Augustine turf."
Nelson noted that Panterra also has been used on the university soccer field and Kyle Field football stadium at Texas A&M University in College Station in past years.
"Panterra's early maturity should allow an easy transition from the winter grass to the warm season grass and put an end to brown or bald spots in home lawns and soccer fields," Nelson said.
Those wishing to find a local distribution company for Panterra seed may visit the Barenbrug website at http://www.barusa.com, Nelson said.
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