The potential of North American strains of Poa annua f. reptans for use on Norwegian golf course putting greens.

In Norway there are now 157 golf courses and 125.000 players. In order to serve this growing sport, the Norwegian Crop Research Institute in 2003 established a center for turfgrass research at Landvik, Grimstad, and I was appointed leader of the research team. Since then, several projects have been intitated, many of them funded by the Scandinavian Turfgrass Research Foundation. One of our highest priorities is to find grass species and cultivars suitable for Norwegian climate conditions. Turfgrass rese arch has much stronger traditions in North America than in Europe. Probably the most successful research team is found at Penn State University. Today, the PSU turfgrass team comprises eight scientists pluss staff and graduate students. From a Norwegian p erspecive, one of the most interesting programs is D.R.Huff's world-wide collection and breeding of perennial and persistent types of Poa annua that are very tolerant to close mowing. As Poa annuas presently dominating Norwegian golf greens are mostly of the annual type, it would be a major step forward if any of Dr. Huff's material could be used in Norway. The main objective of my mission to PSU is therefore to conduct an intial on-site evaluation of winter hardiness in the top PSU selections. In Decembe r 2005 cores of naturally hardened plants from a nursery green will be taken to growth chambers and (1) incubated at 1ºC in sealed multilayer polyethylen bags to simulate ice encasement; and (2) inoculated with Microdochium nivale and covered with moist w adding to simulate snow cover, both of increasing durations. After the treatments, grass recovery will be assessed on an individual tiller basis. Besides D.R. Huff, the research will be conducted in collaboration with PSU turfgrass pathologist P.J. Landsc hoot and the Norwegian scientists A.M.& A.Tronsmo, who developed these methods. After the initial experiments at PSU, the most promising selections will be taken to Norway for further evaluation in field trials.