Effects of overseeding times on different warm-season turfgrasses: Visual turf quality and some related characteristics

Abstract

The sustainability of warm-season turfgrass species in winter dormancy is a major concern in Mediterranean ecology. The con-cept of overseed a lawn has been still new for many developing countries such as Turkey as part of a regular maintenance. Therefore, a 2-year study was conducted at the experimental fields of Ege University, Izmir/Turkey during 2014-2016 years to com-pare the effects of four different overseeding times (September 15, September 30, October 15 and October 30) on four warm season turfgrass species (Cynodon dactylon cv. SR9554, Cynodon dacty-lon × Cynodon transvaalensis cv. Tifway-419, Paspalum vagina-tum cv. Sea Spray and Zoysia japonica cv. Zenith) by measuring visual turf quality (1-9 score) and some related characteristics as texture (mm), cover (1-9 score), weed infestation (1-9 score) and colour (1-9 score). ‘50% cv. Troya+50% cv. Esquire’ perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) mixture was used for overseeding in trial. According to results, visual turf quality performance of 6.0 scores and above were obtained from all treatments. We concluded that October 15 should be most suitable time for overseeding applications. Additionally, L. perenne L. can be practiced success-fully in Mediterranean region in order to eliminate the concerns of warm-season turfgrasses in the winter dormancy period observed in cold temperatures.