Landscape Management, November 2016
sTep by sTep How to identify turf T o properly manage a lawn or turf area its important to know what type of turfgrass youre working with This knowledge helps determine proper mowing height and frequency as well as water fertilizer and pesticide needs Unfortunately identifying turf can be like solving a puzzle and no single characteristic or feature can be solely relied upon to determine a turfgrass species Its good practice to identify several samples from the same turf area because most lawns comprise a mixture of turf types For example many contractors choose to plant a utility sun shade seed mixture to accommodate the different environments throughout a lawn Its also important to note there can be hundreds of different cultivars within a turfgrass species each with unique leaf color texture and density When selecting grasses for identification choose the healthiest plants possible as mature actively growing grasses will be easier to identify than wilted dried or damaged plants The first step in the identification process is to confirm that the plant in question is indeed a grass not a sedge or a rush which are considered weeds Grasses have their leaves arranged in ranks of two and a ligule is often present By contrast sedges and rushes have leaves arranged in ranks of three and the ligule is poorly developed or absent Another distinctive characteristic of a sedge is its triangular shaped stem Follow the steps here then enter your results into NC State Universitys grass identification tool at turfid ncsu edu Source Purdue University Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences download it Visit landscape Management net StepbyStep to download a PdF of this page to use as a training tool for your team illustrations DaviD Preiss STEP 2 Observe the leaf blade There are four very important features located where the leaf blade and the leaf sheath join the ligule the auricles the collar the most variable and least reliable identifying characteristic and the sheath The sheath may be split open split with overlapping margins or completely closed news how tos STEP 1 Determine the grasss vernation by observing the arrangement of young leaves in a budleaf before it opens For most turfgrasses the vernation will either be rolled or folded STEP 3 Observe the leaf blade and leaf tips Leaf tips may be pointed rounded or boat shaped Often the leaf tips of grasses from the same species are similar for example a boat shaped leaf tip generally indicates a type of bluegrass The mid rib may be present and the leaf blade may be glossy shiny or dull LANDSCAPEMANAGEMENT NET November 2016 12
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