Optimizing lawn grass species for turf establishment as mono-stand and mixtures under mid hill conditions

Abstract: Lawn performs best with minimum inputs when grown in mixtures using more than a single grass specie. A study was conducted under open field conditions to evaluate the performance of four lawn grass species as mono-stand and in mixtures under mid-hill conditions at the Experimental Farm of the Department of Floriculture and Landscape Architecture, Dr Yashwant Singh Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan (H.P.) during March, 2020 to March, 2021. The experiment was laid out in a randomized block design with twelve treatments and three replications. Data was recorded at fortnight intervals for total weed count, chlorophyll content, number of mowing, and overall presentability just after turf establishment. It was observed that all turf grass mixtures, performed better than the monostands, during the entire course of the study. Turf grass mixture (50% ‘Agrostis stolonifera’ + 20% ‘Festuca rubra’ + 20% ‘Lolium perenne’ + 10% ‘Cynodon dactylon)’ required least number of mowing and was presentable throughout the year attaining highest presentability score of 22.98.