No Mowing Trial – Pitt Town

3rd Evaluation and Results

Introduction

At the conclusion of the second trial stage all plots at the Pitt Town site were let go and not mown or maintained for a 20 week period between 15th January 2007 and 7th June 2007. The purpose of this trial is to observe which varieties would easily get out of control, become invasive and unmanageable if they were not maintained for a period of time. This trial will provide real data on which varieties perform the best under these conditions requiring the least amount of maintenance, attention and could be left for a long period while still having an adequate quality lawn.

General Information and Results

On the 7th June 2007 all plots had been left untouched for 20 weeks and 3 days, this period of time was sufficient enough for the purpose of the trial, so that each individual plot could reach a growing height suitable to measure and average the differences between each variety tested. A and B plots for each variety had 10 random readings taken from each plot to give an overall average for each variety. All plots received moderate, sensible to sufficient irrigation over this period.

Table 1

The following table shows the measurements collected on the A plots at the Pitt Town site. (All measurements are in mm).

Readings	Kikuyu 1A	Kikuyu11A	Kikuyu 15A	Palmetto 2A	Palmetto12A	Palmetto 16A
1	298	411	499	138	117	88
2	296	312	498	98	118	110
3	296	305	512	118	129	145
4	320	338	522	112	119	140
5	325	402	433	142	136	110
6	310	456	445	164	88	109
7	288	489	460	162	110	113
8	298	414	553	138	108	99
9	268	398	449	132	120	108
10	345	407	481	148	148	125
Average	304.4	393.2	485.2	135.2	119.3	114.7
Readings	Sir W 3A	Sir W 7A	Sir W 17A	Smaster 4A	Smaster 8A	Smaster 18A
1	158	214	156	173	160	150
2	195	173	188	188	123	222
3	163	184	210	158	142	255
4	255	173	200	178	144	241
5	165	175	145	188	156	220
6	185	168	168	185	168	230
7	228	183	178	167	154	220
8	179	175	205	183	178	146
9	140	148	209	194	147	148
10	198	153	134	184	153	190
Average	186.6	174.6	179.3	179.8	152.5	202.2
Readings	Greenlees 5A	Greenlees 9A	Greenlees 13A	Empire 6A	Empire 10A	Empire 14A
1	270	263	295	108	106	91
2	284	215	281	108	119	91
3	216	220	225	111	127	92
4	160	204	167	124	139	100
5	162	243	138	134	138	100
6	181	135	182	117	129	102
7	195	143	189	119	102	109
8	238	152	258	123	113	111
9	247	200	222	119	110	119
10	238	243	220	93	183	130
Average	219.1	201.8	217.7	115.6	126.6	104.5

Table 2

The following table shows the measurements collected on the B plots at the Pitt Town site.
(All measurements are in mm).

Readings	Kikuyu 1B	Kikuyu 11B	Kikuyu 15B	Palmetto 2B	Palmetto 12B	Palmetto 16B
1	278	655	609	88	119	80
2	286	648	633	88	168	88
3	278	465	630	78	144	105
4	305	636	648	74	128	130
5	260	564	655	86	90	110
6	280	558	644	85	80	110
7	265	493	520	70	110	109
8	268	412	535	72	108	109
9	276	541	580	60	120	98
10	258	500	600	55	148	110
Average	275.4	547.2	605.4	75.6	121.5	104.9
Readings	Sir W 3B	Sir W 7B	Sir W 17B	Smaster 4B	Smaster 8B	Smaster 18B
1	129	166	88	123	128	190
2	153	137	162	185	159	150
3	173	157	148	186	144	110
4	141	173	150	257	128	113
5	127	195	158	204	169	130
6	116	160	150	170	186	112
7	125	132	125	159	188	146
8	155	148	112	170	202	140
9	155	155	122	177	112	138
10	190	139	159	94	159	107
Average	146.4	156.2	137.4	139.6	157.5	133.6
Readings	Greenlees 5B	Greenlees 9B	Greenlees 13B	Empire 6B	Empire 10B	Empire 14B
1	270	210	248	114	109	118
2	284	208	229	97	127	137
3	216	127	147	124	137	112
4	160	116	186	114	133	123
5	162	149	188	110	116	136
6	181	169	220	118	110	99
7	195	174	227	121	117	88
8	238	148	223	117	125	99
9	247	149	199	128	137	101
10	238	208	198	131	139	111
Average	219.1	165.8	206.5	117.4	125	112.4

Table 3

The following table includes the averages of the 3 individual A and B plots for each variety. It also includes an average of the A and B plots combined. (All measurements are in mm).

Varieties	Fert A Plots	Unfert B Plots	Average of A+B combined
Kikuyu	394.3	476	435.15
Palmetto	123.1	100.6	111.85
Sir Walter	180.2	146.6	163.4
Smaster	178.2	143.6	160.9
Greenlees	212.9	197.1	205
Empire	115.6	118.3	116.95

During observations and recording of measurements on this trial we found that the Kikuyu in the Fertilised A plots was actually on average a lower height than the non fertilized B plots. This is because the fertilized plots grew a lot quicker and became softer causing the leaf to fall over and not be upright, whereas the leaf on the non fertilised B plots were not soft but were upright so they stayed at a taller height. It was also noted that Empire had a slightly lower growth rate in the fertilized A plots compared with the non fertilized B plots. This result is most likely due to the slow release fertilser being applied over 6 months prior to the trial beginning.

As a result the effect of the fertilizer had most likely worn off quicker on the Empire and had no significant difference between the non fertilsed plots and the fertilized plots. Other varieties such as the Greenlees, Shademaster, Sir Walter and Palmetto showed that the average growth was taller when fertilsed with a slow release fertilizer prior to performing no mowing.

As the results show Kikuyu by a long way was the fastest growing variety with the tallest growth, followed by Greenlees Couch and then Sir Walter and Shademaster. Empire and Palmetto were significantly the best 2 varieties in this situation where no mowing was performed.

When observing the plots we did find that the Empire had the most even growth with higher uniformity followed closely by Palmetto. Compared to the other varieties in the trial Kikuyu was the most rampant and out of control by a significant amount.

Conclusion

In conclusion it is clear that Palmetto and Empire are the 2 best turf varieties in this trial for low maintenance and having significantly less growth when left for periods of time without any mowing or maintenance.

The results show us that if you have periods of no mowing for short or longer periods either with a home lawn or lawn for commercial use it would be more sensible to use either Empire or Palmetto turf varieties. For home lawns Empire or Palmetto would be the obvious choice. If you are going away on holidays or simply you can not mow your lawn for whatever reason Empire and Palmetto will grow to the shortest heights with the best quality, making them both more manageable when you return to mowing again. The results show that generally it is better not to fertilise your lawn prior to going away when no mowing can be performed due to the higher growth rates.

For commercial use of turf for roadsides, factories, large amenity areas, large banks and hard to mow areas the best choice would be Empire Turf. Empire keeps the most even, uniform growth and will only grow to an average height of 10-12cm when not mown for periods of time. Empire is great for commercial applications where erosion or damage may occur as it has very good erosion control capabilities. (Please see plant and turf erosion control paper here). Empire also has very good drought survivability and is ideal for these low maintenance commercial applications where maintenance is very low.

If other varieties were to be used for residential or commercial applications in this way namely Kikuyu, Greenlees, Sir Walter and Shademaster they would grow too tall, require too much maintenance and become somewhat invasive and a lot harder to manage. Empire and Palmetto can be left a lot longer without any maintenance or mowing without becoming too tall, untidy and invasive into other unwanted areas.