Survival of Turfgrass Seedlings Subjected to Induced Drouth Stress 1

Turfgrass seedlings were exposed in the growth chamber to alternate moist and severe drying conditions. ‘Park’ and ‘Merion’ had significantly more surviving seedlings than other bluegrasses following subjection to drouth treatments. Final survival of one Merion seed lot was significantly higher than that of any of the other turf grasses. Most of the Merion survival was the result of delayed seedling emergence occurring during a prolonged moist period before the final period of drouth stress. Initial emergence of the red fescues under moist conditions was considerably faster than for the bluegrasses, but ‘Pennlawn’ and ‘Rainier’ red fescues were significantly slower than Park Kentucky bluegrass. Rainier red fescue appeared to have somewhat greater resistance to vegetative desiccation resulting in death than the other fescues. Evidence was obtained that new fescue seedlings could emerge, and that generally bluegrasses could not, during brief moist intervals between periods of drouth. Following three periods of induced drouth, both lots of Chewings red fescue had significantly fewer seedlings than did the other fescues. Except after the final very severe period of stress, red fescue seedlings were generally present in significantly greater numbers than were the bluegrasses. In these tests common red fescue was equal or superior to the named fescue cultivars in over‐all drouth tolerance.