Media Contact: Stacie Zinn FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Grasses
Designed to Replace St. Augustine & Bermudagrass Orlando, Florida (Thursday, February 10, 2005): Four new environmentally friendly turfgrasses were unveiled today by officials from the University of Florida and Environmental Turf at the Golf Industry Show in Orlando. The new grasses are: Aloha™ Seashore Paspalum, Ultimate™ Zoysia, Pristine™ Zoysia, and Hammock™ Centipede. “These four new grasses were designed to replace St. Augustine on home lawns and Bermudagrass on golf courses,” said Dr. Brian Scully, professor of plant breeding & genetics at the University of Florida. Scully was the principal investigator and lead scientist who helped develop the new grasses. The four new grasses were announced by Dr. Jimmy Cheek, senior vice president for agriculture and natural resources at the University of Florida, and Wiley McCall, president of Environmental Turf Inc. Cheek said the grasses are considered environmentally friendly because they require less water for irrigation than many of the warm-season grasses currently available for lawns, golf courses and sports fields. Some of the grasses also require less fertilizer and less frequent mowing, Cheek said. Aloha™ Seashore Paspalum: Aloha™ Seashore Paspalum is a fine textured turfgrass that can be used from tee-to-green on golf courses, on sports fields and on high-end residential lawns. Aloha™ may be irrigated with highly salty water. Aloha™ takes up to 50 percent less water for irrigation and up to 75 percent less nitrogen for fertilization than Bermudagrass. Aloha™ can be used basically anywhere that one might use Bermudagrass such as golf courses, sports fields and residential lawns, plus it can withstand high salt conditions that would generally kill Bermudagrass. University of Florida researchers have also found Aloha™ Seahsore Paspalum to be resistant to the green bug aphid. Ultimate™ Zoysia: Ultimate™ Zoysia is a medium textured lawn grass that requires lower quantities of nitrogen than many other lawn grasses, therefore creating less nitrogen runoff. It is also fairly drought tolerant, requiring less water for irrigation than many other zoysias, which saves on water resources. It may be used anywhere you might use a St. Augustine grass, but its medium texture and deeper green color make it a much more visually appealing grass than St. Augustine for residential and commercial lawns. Pristine™ Zoysia: Pristine™ Zoysia is a fine textured turfgrass designed for use on golf course fairways, tees, roughs and collars. University researchers have found that Pristine™ Zoysia resists sod webworms. Pristine™ has a faster growth rate and produces fewer seed heads than traditional zoysia grasses. It also requires less water for irrigation than many other zoysia grasses. Hammock™ Centipede: Hammock™ Centipede grows vertically very slowly, therefore requiring significantly less frequent mowing than many other common lawn grasses. With proper care, home owners with Hammock™ Centipede in their yards could mow their lawns less than six times per year. This attribute means lawn mowers are being run less frequently, thereby using less fuel and creating less pollution in the mowing process. Plus, Hammock™ Centipede requires signifcantly less water for irrigation than St. Augustine grasses. Environmental Turf’s McCall said his company supports the University of Florida by funding research efforts in the school’s turfgrass program. Environmental Turf is the research, development and marketing company that licenses sod producers in warm-season climates to grow the new grasses. Environmental Turf markets these four new grasses world-wide. For more information on Aloha™ Seashore Paspalum, Ultimate™ Zoysia, Pristine™ Zoysia or Hammock™ Centipede call 772-460-5575 or www.environmentalturf.com.
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