Final Package: New Turfgrass Makes VT Fields Safer, Cold-Resistant

New Turfgrass Makes VT Fields Safer, Cold-Resistant

People may take the grass beneath their feet for granted, but some researchers at Virginia Tech are taking turfgrass very seriously.

The fields in the university’s South Recreational Area, which are used by both Recreational Sports teams and the club lacrosse and soccer teams, have been planted with a new variety of cold-tolerant Bermuda turfgrass to better resist Blacksburg’s harsh weather.

The grass also recovers from damage more quickly and doesn’t need to be re-seeded each year, saving time and money.

                                    Bermuda Grass Bio Blast

• According to bermudagrass.com, the grass was first brought to America in the 1500's from Africa.

• The grass was initially used for foraging, but is now used for golf greens, athletic fields, and even lawns.

• Bermuda grass was formerly used only in the South, in areas like Texas and Oklahoma, but gradually expanding northward.

• According to Texas A&M's website, the grass's ideal daytime temperature is anything above 75 degrees, but it thrives at temperatures between 95 and 100 degrees.

• The grass is known as one of the most resilient and aggressive varieties in existence, making it hardy, but also hard to kill if it's no longer desired.

Turfgrass specialist and professor Mike Goatley and Rec Sports turf and outdoor facilities manager Chad Kropff began the project in 2012, and the grass is now almost ready for use for the upcoming season.

The Bermuda grass is dormant right now, but turfgrass officials say that by the time the rec sports season rolls around this fall, the fields will be ready for the soccer and lacrosse teams.

Kropff brought the idea to the Turfgrass Research Center atVirginia Tech as a way to improve the quality of the fields for Tech’s recreational athletes.

“From the get-go of the whole process, (the goal) was to give our clubs a better stand of turf to actually play their sports with,” Kropff said.

Goatley then worked to ensure that the new turf would both minimize the risk of athlete injuries with its high quality and better endure the cold weather.

“The benefits of these new grasses are going to be their density and their leaf texture, because they’re even finer textured, and athletes are looking to play on the highest quality surface we can get,” Goatley said. “The other thing that comes along with these varieties that Chad’s experimenting with are the new cold tolerant varieties.”

Tech’s football team currently uses one form of Bermuda grass for its field, and the new strain’s success has the Rec Sports department considering an expansion of the grass to the rest of its fields.