QTPA Member Alert | REDLANDS WORLDS LARGEST COLLECTION OF TURF RESEARCH PLOTS (23/10/2012)

REDLANDS WORLDS LARGEST COLLECTION OF TURF RESEARCH PLOTS

DID YOU KNOW

The Redlands Research Facility at Cleveland in Brisbane houses 137 different varieties of warm season turfgrasses in its own dedicated area for Turfgrass research. This is the most comprehensive collection of its kind in the world and based in Brisbane.  Obviously not all of these are commercially available and under research.

From a turf industry perspective this has huge educational and research value serving as an extraordinary turfgrass research initiative in the diverse warm season climate of Queensland’s tropical and subtropical lifestyle.

Research is undertaken into water use and bioremediation, stress tolerance, salt, shade, temperature, diseases, nutrition and weed control.  It is also involved in the characterisation and improvement of sports services, DNA fingerprinting, and breeding.

Ongoing maintenance of this collection is jointly supported by Horticulture Australia and the Australian Turf Levy and funding is being sought from HAL for the continued upkeep until 2015.

If you have not seen these demonstration plots it is well worth while taking the time, as each one is independently identified and worthy of comparison.