ABERIMP SETS THE STANDARDS

The perennial ryegrass AberImp - developed by the British Seed Houses amenity grass breeding programme based at the Institute of Grassland & Environmental Research (IGER) in Aberystwyth - has lived up to its dual-purpose billing by heading the new Turfgrass Seed 2003 cultivar listings for both sports (mown at 30mm) and landscaping uses (mown at 10-15mm).

Published by the British Society of Plant Breeders Limited in conjunction with the STRI, the new buyers guide to quality amenity turf grasses gives AberImp a sports use mean score of 7.4 for live ground cover and visual merit under wear. For lawns and landscaping use, the IGER-bred cultivar scores even more impressively - opening up 0.4 point lead over its nearest rival based on its mean performance for shoot density, fineness of leaf, slow re-growth and visual merit.

According to British Seed Houses amenity seeds manager Jon Chippendale, AberImp is currently the perfect low maintenance, dual-purpose ryegrass for sports arenas.

"AberImp features excellent wear tolerance under both low and high nitrogen fertiliser regimes," Jon points out. "But what is really impressive is its unrivalled shoot density - a whole point score ahead of any other ryegrass available - and its exceptional slow re-growth characteristics under regular mowing. As a result, the cultivar is ideal for both winter pitches and closer-mown sports areas."

For these reasons, AberImp now features in the key Grade A Sports ground mixtures from British Seed Houses. Grade A8 Supra Sport is now used at a number of modern football stadia because it produces a competitive sward and contains Supra Poa supina - a well-respected variety for its ability to perform well in areas of high wear and shade. Now, thanks to the inclusion of AberImp too, wearability has been further improved without having to compromise shoot density. Grade A5 Cricket & Tennis Renovation has been improved too and now includes 40% AberImp in the mixture.

In addition, the Grade A20 Ryesport football stadia mixture has also received a boost. The 100% ryegrass mixture is a blend of AberImp, AberElf, Claudius and Darius. It establishes quickly, wears well and has great winter colour. In all, the ideal ryegrass mixture for over seeding all football pitches and other grassed sports arenas.