School of Plant Biology

Soft-leaf buffalo is gaining in popularity in Australia, but best management practices for these turfgrasses have yet to be developed.

We are evaluating:

1. Water use and drought tolerance
2. Performance on calcareous soils

This project is part of a larger national project lead by the Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries.

Water use and drought tolerance

We conducted water-use studies of 12 buffalo grass genotypes under the travelling-boom irrigator at our turf research facility at Shenton Park, WA.

The genotypes were:

• Sapphire (B12)
• GP22
• Matilda
• Palmetto

• Sir James
• Sir Walter
• ST26
• ST91

• Shademaster
• TF01
• Velvet
• WA common buffalo.

Irrigation treatments were imposed during the 2006/2007 summer for 16 weeks. Recovery was assessed for four weeks, by re-watering all plots daily at 80% replacement of net evaporation.

Measurements were taken of:

• growth
• colour
  

• leaf-water content
• sap osmotic potential.

These measurements were also taken during the recovery phase.

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Performance on calcareous soils

Performance on calcareous soil is being examined at site at Wembley Golf Club, WA.

The genotypes are:

• Sapphire (B12)
• GP22
• Matilda
• Palmetto
• Sir James
• Sir Walter

• ST26
• ST91
• TF01
• Shademaster
• Velvet
• WA common buffalo

• EB1
• EB2
• ST85
• ST135
• MRS2
• Wintergreen couch.

Staff assess growth, colour, and turf nutrition four times a year. Measurements began during the summer of 2007.

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