UNITED STATES GOLF ASSOCIATION GREEN SECTION Southwestern Office Texas A & M College COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS MARVIN H. FERGUSON SOUTHWESTERN DIRECTOR NATIONAL RESEARCH COORDINATOR Southwestern Turfletter 4 a FES No. 1 i February - 1957 qx iA Dry FOE THON NOTICE SE IE AESE SE HAE RE IE HERE HE SEE SE HE BE SESE SESE SE SESE RE ME HEE HE ESE EAE SE SEE ESE AEH SE HE SESE ME HE ESE SESE EEE EHH This is the last issue of the Southwestern Turf- letter that you will recsive. Because of a slight charge in the organization of the Green Section, it is planned to publish turfletters from four regions of the United States. These regions conform gener- ally to the major divisions of turfgrass adaptation. Subscribers in the Sonthwestern Region who have golf courses with Bermudagrass greens will receive the Southern Turfletter. Those who grow bentgrass greens will receive the Mid-Continent Turfletter. A part of the material for each of these turfletiers will con- tinue to be prepared at College Station, Texas. eK kh KK KK KR KH KR KH KK HK K wR we wR me we KK KK KK K K FETE SE HES PESESE SESE SE AE IESE HEE HE SEE SE SESE SE SESE IE SESE SE TERE BE SEE ENE SESE SE ESE ESE SESE IESE HEHE EDEN SEE RESE EEE THE MID-CONTINENT REGION In 1957, the Regional Turf Service will be available to USCA member clubs in every part of the United States. In relation to this expansion, a new region has been established which will include the Southwestern Region and a part of the Mid- west where the service has not been offered previously. Two offices will serve the region. One will be at College Station, Texes, and one at Chicago, Illinois. Three actonomists will serve the region. They are J. B. Moncrief, James L. Holmes, and Mervin H. Ferguson, Regional Director. It is believed that this new arrangement ‘rill make possible better service to old subscribers as well as the ones to whom the € service is newly available. OKLAHOMA AWARDS The Oklahoma Turfgrass Association presented awards for outstanding service to two of its members during the Turfgrass Conference last December. Inscriptions on the awards read as follows: To BOB DUNNING For outstanding service in the field of turf management and perpetuation of interest and desire in turf improvement in the State of Oklahoma 1956 Oklahoma Turfgrass Association Award of Merit To JOHN PRICE For His Efforts to Advance Turf Improvement in Oklahoma 1956 Our congratulations to Bob Dunning and John Price! The Oklahoma Turfgrass Association is fortunate to have members like Bob and John and it is to be com- mended for this expression of appreciation for their service. LONGEVITY OF SEEDS Very often one encounters a person who has undertaken the establishment or re-establishment of turf on an area and who finds that he has produced a crop of weeds rather than a stand of the grass which was sown. If the weed which appeared was not common in the area before the renovation was undertaken, the person is quite likely to believe that the seed he bought was full of weed seeds. Seed laws require that lots of seed’ be accurately labeled with respect to germination, purity, and weed seed content. It is extremely unlikely that one would ever bring about 4 weed infestation in this way so long as he bought properly labeled seed. The weeds that appear following renovation ar2 most likely those which have been lying dormant in the soil. How long does a seed live in the soil? F. H. Montgomery of the Ontario Agricultural College provided some answers in a paper presented to the Sports Turfgrass Conference at Guelph in 1955. The following extracted para- graphs are quoted from Montgomery's pzper: "Periodically we read about successful germination tests being made on seeds that have been discovered in Egyptian tombs or in the caves of pre-historic man. Such claims must be treated with the greatest of skepticism. Experimental work has shown that seeds do die after a period of time." ...... "The number of seeds present in the soil is enormous. At the Rothamsted Fxperimental Station in Enrelend, a survey was made to determine the number of seeds present in fields that had been under cultivation for almost a century. It was estimated that approxi- mately 158 million seeds were present on every acre. Meny of these would not germinate under normal agricultural conditions at any one time, but when brought under proper conditions for germination they did germinate. How long some of these seeds had been in the soil is not known." wees "Few long range experiments have been conducted to test the longevity eS of seeds buried in the soil, but two may be mentioned here. "Duval of the U. S. Dept. of Agriculture in 1902 started a test on 107 species of wild and cultivated seeds in soil longevity. Germination tests were made at intervals of 1, 3, 6, 10, 16 and 20 years. Most seeds of cultivated plants died after one year. Timothy, Kentucky bluegrass, beet, Bush clover (Lespedeza), 3 species of clover, tobacco, celery and black locust were still viable after the 20 year period. Seeds of wild plants were found to be especially viable after 20 years in the soil. "In 1879, Beal of the Michigan Agricultural College began an experiment to study the viability of a number of seeds, mostly weed seeds. He used 20 species. These seeds were mixed with sand and placed in pint bottles. 1000 seeds were placed..in each bottle, and the bottles were buried 18 inches in the earth. It was planned to test these at inter- vals of 5 years. In 1920 it was decided to make the interval 10 year periods. The 1950 results, or the 7Cth year of the experiment, showed that the seeds of evening primrose, curled lock, moth mullein were still viable. These, however, are not all that may still be viable, for as I mentioned before, dormancy is an unpredictable state and other seeds may still be viable or break their dormancy and appear in another test. Other long lived seeds of this experiment have been Redroot pigweed, 40 years; Black mustard, 50 years; field peppergrass, 40 years; dog fennel or stinking mayweed, 50 years; common chickweed, & 30 years, and common mullein, 35 years." Sec. 34.66 PLL. &R. | U. 5. POSTAGE Southwestern Turfletter amen Permit No. 80 USGA GREEN SECTION Professor James Tyson Dept, of Soil Science Michigan State College Tenaing, Mich. Bast