NTEP survey yields great info, but more responses needed
29 Apr, 2010 Athletic TurfBELTSVILLE, MD — The National Turfgrass Evaluation Program (NTEP), headquartered here, develops and coordinates uniform evaluation trials of turfgrass varieties and promising selections in the United States and Canada.
NTEP has expanded to the evaluation of 17 turfgrass species in as many as 40 U.S. states and six provinces in Canada. Information such as turfgrass quality, color, density, resistance to diseases and insects, tolerance to heat, cold, drought and traffic is collected and summarized by NTEP annually. NTEP is the source that professionals and homeowners alike access to determine which species or cultivar within a species best suits their particular needs in terms of location and turfgrass use — whether a golf course green, sports field, commercial property or homelawn.
With the aid of NTEP, turfgrass breeders have been able to develop turfgrasses with:
- Improved disease and insect resistance
- Improved tolerance of drought, heat, traffic and cold
- Increased density, darker green color, slower growing
- Faster establishment, better recovery from damage by various pests, stresses
- Better performance, with reduced fertilizer, water and pesticide use
- Improved performance under lower cutting heights
NTEP is seeking your help by completing a short survey to gauge where to increase and improve its efforts. (Click here for the survey.)
Thus far, the NTEP survey has shown what its clientele desire in turfgrass data, as well as their opinions on how to progress in turfgrass evaluations.
The most important reasons for people to visit the NTEP site include:
- to identify the best cultivar(s) for their location;
- to compare several cultivars for many traits; and
- to determine the best turfgrass cultivar for a specific problem.
The Top 5 turfgrass characteristics noted by survey respondents include (respondents %):
- highest turfgrass quality (67.6%);
- best overall disease resistance (49.7%);
- traffic tolerance (46.2%);
- staying green during drought (39.3%); and
- surviving drought (35.3%).
On the question of whether a web-based database to sort and report specific cultivar information would be useful, an overwhelming majority (71.6%) of respondents would either pay for that service or may pay for the service, depending on the quality of the reports delivered.
Survey respondents include professional turf managers, breeders, researchers, marketers and a significant percentage (23.1%) of homeowners.
NTEP need many more of you to take its survey. If you have not done so, please click here to take the NTEP Survey.
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