DLF’s Johnson Sport Seed Cultivars top Seed listings

Worcestershire based DLF Trifolium Ltd, and its Johnson Sport Seeds Cultivars, dominate the 2012 Turfgrass seed booklet with a top rating for their innovative sports grasses in 12 turf grass tables. Amongst the highlights is the new Arrowtown browntop bent grass, which will set a new standard for close mown sports turf, and can be seen in several new mixes within the Johnson Sport Seeds range for 2013.

Some of these new high performance mixes have been developed specifically for golf greens, like J Green, J Premier Green and J All Bent.

J Premier Green has been developed as a renovation mix with a fescue nurse crop to promote successful overseeding. The resultant green will benefit from improved natural disease resistance and offer a high tolerance to close mowing, with high shoot density that will help reduce the invasion of Poa Annua.

J All Bent mixture, on the other hand, finds particular purpose for regular overseeding and is suited to courses seeking a dense and visually attractive green. As with Premier Green, dense growth will help combat Poa Annua invasion when the mix is used regularly through the growing season.

Derek Smith, of DLF Trifolium explained, "Arrowtown is a Browntop Bent that has really performed exceptionally well in our trials. Arrowtown completes our portfolio of market leading bent grasses, including velvet and creeping bents." He continued, "A key attribute of this new cultivar is its fine and dense growth so those seeking to produce fast but sustainable greens will find these new Arrowtown rich mixes hard to beat. This makes it an ideal companion to the fescues in the new J Premier Green mix and really works well with both Manor and disease resistant Denso bents in our new All Bent mix. "

Arrowtown bent offers noticeably denser growth than cultivars that include Manor, Barking and Aberroyal. The new cultivar is also ideally suited to tightly mown greens but has the added benefit of good durability. This means Arrowtown can be incorporated into mixes suitable for fairways, including trafficked areas.

Derek again, "Modern golf greens have evolved, with key demands including a tight, dense surface for high-speeds but with high disease tolerance to minimise input costs. Our two new mixes exploit the natural vigour of Arrowtown to enable a green to recover quickly from renovation. The inclusion of Arrowtown within our new mixes also offers improved drought stress and colour retention in a dry summer. Those who endeavour to reduce inputs without compromising playability will find these two new mixes ideally suited to their demands."

For those courses close to the sea, DLF has carried out extensive laboratory salt tolerance screening & field trials. This has resulted in J Links, a new 100% fescue mixture designed for links conditions and sustainable management programs - more information to follow.

Please see range of Johnsons seed in the Pitchcare Shop