British Seed Houses varieties enthusiastically received at BTME
British Seed Houses has showcased its outstanding fine turf range at BTME, offering course managers the latest varieties to produce top quality playing conditions in 2012.
AberCharm has been UK-bred for UK conditions. It boasts excellent shoot density and unrivalled summer and winter greenness, offering greenkeepers the opportunity to improve the visual quality of their greens year round.
The Slender Creeping Red Fescue Festuca rubra ssp litoralis produces rhizomes and a very dense compact sward with strong dark green colour which is maintained throughout the year. It also resists the major fungal diseases.
British Seed Houses Amenity Field Sales Manager Richard Brown points out: “In our A11 Golf Greens Mixture, with Dorianna Chewings Fescue and AberRoyal Browntop Bent, greenkeepers can take advantage of three grass cultivars that combine to offer unrivalled winter greenness scores resulting in a mixture that helps retain uniform healthy looking greens through the difficult late autumn and winter months.”
Highlighted in the latest, tremendously informative British Seed Houses catalogue’s dedicated section on bentgrasses, TYEE & 007 ‘Superbents’ also commanded considerable visitor interest at the Harrogate show.
Key to the success of both these varieties is their broad genetic base – 007 was developed using no less than 24 parent plants. It is this background that enables these varieties to deliver the same results all around the world from the extreme heat of Morocco to the harsh cold of Western Siberia.
The original selections used in the development of TYEE came from old high stress low maintenance golf courses. All parental clones were selected for a medium bright green leaf colour which does not display purple discolouration in cold weather and their vigorous uniform growth habit, as well as improved Dollar spot resistance
TYEE is widely adaptable to both warm summers and cold winters and produces fine leaf texture and turf with extra density which outcompetes poa annua. It provides excellent disease resistance, especially to Dollar spot and Fusarium and offers the benefit of reduced fungicide application. For use on greens and tees, TYEE produces superior putting greens.
Both varieties have made a strong impression on leading course managers and their qualities will be in the spotlight on the US Open course at the Olympic Club in San Francisco and at the Medinah Country Club, Chicago, the Ryder Cup venue for 2012.
The ‘Specifiers Tool’ on the British Seed Houses’ website, which allows landscape architects and contractors to precisely identify the perfect grass seed mixture or fertiliser for a particular project has been a tremendous success. Now the latest smartphone technology means that this vital information can be accessed anywhere, even onsite, using the new ‘Specifiers App’ for iPhone, Android and Blackberry. The service has been enthusiastically received by specifiers and project managers who now know that they always have the essential data to hand to help them deliver the perfect project to their clients.
Richard Brown says: “By carefully selecting varieties for characteristics which offer the course manager superb performance while resisting challenges such as disease and extremes of temperature which can limit quality, we have been able to present an exceptional offering at BTME, which has been extremely well received. Tools such as our informative website and new catalogue, along with our team of turf experts help the customer pinpoint the ideal choices to get the very best from his course.”