What are the best grasses for rough?

[Dan Herrmann]

What do you think the best grasses are for rough?

Bluegrass and rye seem quite common, but they're amazingly penal during the spring, especially if it's wet.  I've seen fescue, but they can tend to be a bit sparse - leaving some bare spots when planted here in Pennsylvania.

So - what types of grasses are best for rough in your part of the world?

[Bradley Anderson]

I like a bluegrass and fescue mix. Fescue seed is much bigger in size than bluegrass seed so it may be up to 70% the weight of the bag to get a true 50/50 blend.

In areas where you need a little extra traffic resiliency you apply nitrogen fertilizer and the bluegrass will outgrow the fescue. In areas where you want to minumize mowing and maintenance you withold fertilizer and water.

The bluegrass/fescue blend allows you to custom adjust percentages by adding fertilizer to wherever you want more bluegrass. Irrigation also gives the bluegrass some advantage over the fescue, but not as significantly as nitrogen.

In your fescue component you need equal parts Chewings, Hard and Red fescue.

In your bluegrass component you need at least three varieties as well.

Ryegrass is very stemmy mid-May through mid-July. And you can't crowd it out of the mix with fertilizer like you can fescue.

[Jim_Kennedy]

Dan,

http://www.uriturf.org/publications/URIFactSheetVol3No3.pdf

[Sean Remington (SBR)]

     In the Mid- Atlantic I think it's tough to beat the newer varieties of Tall Fescue for general rough use.   If you have a step cut around bentgrass fairways I think ryegrass works well and is a better choise than T. Fescue due to height of cut(HOC).   Bluegrass has fallen from favor as the T. Fecsue varieties have been improved.  Also B. grass is slow to green up in the spring and does not come back from drought and heat as good as the T. Fescue.  I'm sure there are other opinions.