Plymouth, Washington, USA
November 1, 2017

One of the most well-known turfgrass evaluation programs globally, each year the National Turfgrass Evaluation Program (NTEP) vets new varieties to better understand how well a cultivar adapted to a local area or determine the level of required turf maintenance. The results of the trials are used by industry and end-users alike to identify drought tolerant, pest resistant, attractive and durable turf or sod.

Columbia River Seed has been submitting new varieties to the NTEP trials for 15 years and this year they were very excited to have 13 varieties being evaluated.

“The varieties we had in the NTEP trials this year are the result of 12 years of collaboration with St. Paul, Ore. based Novel Ag and our marketing partners Columbia Seeds LLC., SiteOne Landscape Supply, ProSeeds Marketing Inc., Landmark Turf and Native Seed and Jonathan Green Inc.,” says Paul Hedgpeth, General Manager of Columbia River Seed. “We chose to partner with Novel Ag to help us improve our breeding methodology and germplasm lines. We knew that their expertise plus Columbia River Seed’s line of quality seed and field plot program we could produce some outstanding lines.”

Of the 13 varieties developed, two will be commercially released for the 2018 planting season and the rest will be available for 2019.

“We’re condent that for turf managers who are looking for new, durable Kentucky bluegrass varieties that our new NAI-13-14 available from Landmark Turf and Native Seed and NAI-13-9 available from Jonathan Green Inc. will deliver,” says Hedgpeth. “Both of these varieties have fantastic seedling vigor and superior wear tolerance. Plus, they feature improved summertime performance with excellent stress recovery.”

To learn more about these new varieties from Columbia River Seed contact us today @ www.columbiariverseed.com.

Website: http://www.columbiaseeds.com/

Published: November 1, 2017