Dr. Hurley is known as the bentgrassdoctor and has been breeding Improved bentgrasses since 1982 to Include the advanced generation varieties 007, 777 and 007XL.
These advanced generation bentgrasses have the greatest opportunity for success in cool season climates for grassing greens, tees and fairways.
Now designated as a class of "Super BentsTM" these varieties will produce a turf showing greater disease resistance / lower fungicide use, finer leaves, a denser turf that is more tolerant to close mowing.
Within the "Super BentTM" class are the varieties 007, 777, 007XL -- as well as MacKenzie, Flagstick and Tyee.
For "Super BentTM" information contact https://sroseed.com/super-bents
For "Super BentTM" variety qualities contact
https://www.sroseed.com/find-a-product/bentgrass
ph: 570-350-8906
hurlrich
Breeding History for
L-93 bentgrass.
Time cannot change history if history is preserved.
Richard Hurley, PhD
Bentgrass (Agrostis spp.) is the most desirable grass species for use on greens, tees, and fairways in cool season climates. From the bentgrass species improved varieties of creeping bent have the most utility for closely mown sports turf surfaces resulting from its tolerance of close mowing, foot traffic, cold winters, and hot summers and enhanced disease resistance.
Creeping bentgrass is widely adaptable and is the most desirable choice for grassing putting greens from the cold temperatures of the Rocky Mountains, New England, Canada, and Russia to the heat of summer in US cities like Dallas, Las Vegas, St. Louis, Kansas City, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Washington DC or faraway places such as Beijing, Tokyo or Morocco. If you desire a quality putting surface selecting an improved variety of creeping bentgrass will produce the most reliable quality putting surface.
Over the past thirty plus years my professional career has been associated with developing new varieties of bentgrass that are finer leaved, provide a denser turf that is more tolerant to close mowing while being more aggressive against Poa annua invasion. The new varieties have been screened and hybridized to provide improved disease resistant to pathogens such as dollar spot, brown patch, anthracnose, and snow mold.
From 1978 to 1983 my graduate studies were conducted at Rutgers University under the direction of the late Dr. C.R. Funk, who was widley acclaimed to have been the world's most respected and productive cool season turfgrass breeder.
I am proud to say that I am one of only a few PhD's that can claim a doctorate degree in turfgrass breeding under the direction of Dr. Funk.
For me I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to know and work with Dr. Funk, such a distinguished scientist and a genius in the field of breeding turfgrasses.
While employed at Loft's Seed Inc. from 1977 through to the end of the 1990's, my position was Director of Research. At the time, Loft's was the world's largest marketer of turfgrass seed.
With my position at Loft's came the responsibility for directing turfgrass breeding and research at company's research farms in Martinsville, New Jersey and Lebanon, Oregon (established in 1989).
During the 1980's and 1990's Loft's turf breeding program had a close working relationship with Dr. Funk's Rutgers turf breeding program.
Some projects included developing improved varieties of ryegrass, bluegrass, fescues, and Poa trivialis designed for use on sports fields, golf courses, home lawns, parks and cemetaries.
The bentgrass variety L-93 was developed during the time period from 1981 to 1993 under the direction of Loft's research, with some of germplasm initally evaluated in cooperation with Dr. Funk.
Late stage bentgrass germplasm evaluations and final selection of parental plants was conducted exclusively by Loft's, with the variety L-93 bred and commercially released under the direction of Loft's research department.
Loft's research department was instrumental in the introduction of L-93 to golf course superintendents and laying the ground work for a highly successful acceptance for use on golf greens, fairways, and tees.
In 1998 Loft's Seed Inc. was sold to Agribiotech (ABT). ABT was a roll up corporation that purchased a total of thirty three (33) highly successful, independent seed companies in the US and Canada during the mid 1990's.
In the year 2000 ABT (a publically traded corporation) filed for bankruptcy. As a result, all of the assets, including the turfgrass varieties, were sold at auction to the highest bidder.
The bentgrass variety L-93 was aquired at the ABT bankruptcy auction by Jacklin Seed Company.
Since the ABT bankruptcy I have not had any involvement in the varitey L-93 to include breeder seed maintenance, foundation or certified seed production.
At this time the variety L-93 is 24 years old.
The name for L-93 bentgrass was originally the experimental designation for this variety.
At the time, early in the 1990's, the experimental variety identified as L-93 was performing well in independent putting green variety evaluation trials so I though it was appropriate to continue to use the name commercially in association with the variety.
The "L" represent Loft's and "93" was the year of commercial release for the variety L-93.
Origin and Breeding History for L-93 creeping bentgrass - 1981 to 1993.
The "idea" for an improved bentgrass.
L-93 creeping bentgrass is a turf-type variety developed primarily out of the germplasm collection and population improvement program I initiated in 1981 as the Director of Reseach for Loft's Seed Inc. At that time Loft's was the world's largest marketer of turfgrass seed.
The following historical outline and timeline is well documented with original field notes, contracts, and paperwork to support the bentgrass breeding project that led to the commercial release of L-93 creeping bentgrass.
In 1981 I asked Dr. Funk, Rutgers University turfgrass breeder, if he would be interested in assisting me with initiating a bentgrass breeding project, with the understanding that all of the bentgrasses collected and developed from our germplasm pool would be the property of Loft's Seed Inc. Dr. Funk respected this understanding and for any claim to ownership there was a signed bentgrass germplasm release agreement between Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station and Loft's Seed Inc.
Collecting rare bentgrass plants from old putting greens.
Over a period of four years approximatley 1,000 creeping bentgrass plants were selected (cutting out a small sample with a knife, from a putting green, and placing it in a bag for future field testing) from old putting greens located primaly on golf courses in New Jersey, New York, California, Arizona, and Pennsylvania during the period from 1981 through 1985.
Dr. Funk and I invested hundreds of hours collecting creeping bentgrasses, encompasing dozens of individual collection trips to visit golf courses for the sole purpose of identifying and collecting bentgrass plants that appeared to have improved turf qualities under close mowing. I scheduled most of the bentgrass collection trips and asked Dr. Funk if he would accompany me on many of the golf course site visits.
Looking for that one in a million plant with special qualities.
Attempts were made to identify old putting greens on old established golf courses that had been subjected to many years of wear, close-mowing, disease, heat, and moisture stress.
Many attractive bentgrass plants were found during our collection trips. It was obvious that these bentgrass plants had persisted on the old golf greens, spread, and developped into patches from a few inches to over three feet in diameter. The plants we were collecting were bentgrass survivors from years of close mowing and wear and tear from foot traffic.
Finding these rare bentgras plants indicated that most of the selected plants had above average persistence, aggressiveness, and tolerance of many environmental stresses. Some putting greens were heavily contaminated with Poa annua that provided us an opportunity to identify bents that were successfully competing against this weedy undesirable grass species.
Waiting to be discovered.
We may assume that many of these bentgrass plants identified had been growing on a green for over 50 or 75 years since the original seeding of the golf course.
At the time of collection what commonly brought our attention to a particular patch of bentgrass was an attractive medium-green color, medium-fine texture, good plant density and an upright growth profile.
Initial screening of the bents collected.
After collecting the bentgrass selections from the golf course all of the plants collected were placed / grown in a nursery, side by side, and evaluated for desirable qualities at the Rutgers turf research farm in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
Following the initial (above described) screening Loft's reseach arranged for and paid all expenses for 738 clonal selections to be sent to western Oregon during April 1986 for evaluation of seed yield potential, disease resistance, and uniform reproductive maturity.
Not making the cut, only the best move on for future testing.
A total of 535 plants included in the Oregon trial not meeting our high standards for performance were removed from the isolated nursery prior to pollination of the remaining bentgrass plants. The above Oregon trial was conducted and administered under the direction of Loft's research department in Martinsville, New Jersey.
Identifying promising bents for continued breeding.
From the above Oregon evaluations seed was harvested only from the 15 most promising, most attractive plants to initate additional breeding cycles of improvement.
These 15 selected plants were pollinated by all 203 plants remaining (738 initial number of plants sent to Oregon, minus the 535 plants removed from the nursery due to poor performance = 203 plants) in the isolation nursery following flowering.
The original sources of the 15 parent plants were collected from the following golf courses putting greens:
Upper Montclair, NJ (3)
Hollywood, NJ (1)
Suburban, NJ (1)
Pellam, NY (1)
Split Rock, NY (1)
South Shore, NY (1)
Shinnecock, NY (1)
The Boulders, AZ (4)
Old bentgrass tests, Cook College Campus, Rutgers University (2)
Advanced screening of germplasm continues.
During the fall of 1987, approximately 1,000 seedlings were germinated from seed collected off the 15 selected progenies. These seedlings were transplanted to a smooth, well-prepared nursery site at the Rutgers research farm at Adelphia, New Jersey. After establishment this nursery was mowed frequently at a height of 1-1/2 inch which allowed each seedling to express its turf characteristics, stress tolerance, and pest resistance.
Putting green trials with the most promising germplasm.
From the seedlings established and evaluated 34 plants were identified as the most attractive and useful plants from this 1987 Adelphi, New Jersey field trial.
These 34 elite plants were subsequently vegetatively increased as we used this material to established individual clonal test plots on a putting green setting at the Loft's research farm in Martinsville, New Jersey in 1989.
Each individual entry was established as a 3 ft. x 5 ft. plot maintained under putting green management at a 3/16 inch height of cut and maintained under putting green conditions. This allowed for turf evaluations under simulated golf course conditions with the exception of minimal fungicides applied to control disease.
Added to the above putting green trial was an additional clonal entry obtained from John Morrissey (Loft's VP of Sales) along with seeded varieties used as standards for comparison.
Entries in this putting green trial were routinely evaluated based on upright growth, high turf density, attractive medium dark green color, early spring greenup, acceptable winter color, and improved resistanc to the dollar spot and brown patch diseases.
After two growing seasons and routine monthly turf evaluations for performance, vegetative clonal samples of the best performing clones from the above putting green trial in Martinsville, New Jersey were established in an isolated (to keep out foreign unwanted pollen) polycross nursery at the Loft's research farm in Lebanon, Oregon during the fall of 1990.
Seed subsequently harvested from each clone in Oregon was planted in turf trials at the Loft's research farm in Martinsville, New Jersey in the fall of 1991 to assess progeny performance. This test was maintained at a 3/16 inch mowing height and received no fungicides that would allow disease to develop naturally.
Final parental selection after ten years of bentgrass evaluations and breeding.
During the fall of 1992, using the performance data for each progeny, a total of 20 entries were vegetatively established in an isolated (to keep out foreign unwanted pollen) breeders seed nursery near the Loft's farm in Lebanon, Oregon.
Selecting the parental genetics for the variety L-93.
The final progeny parents that made up the bentgrass variety L-93 included:
1. 12 bentgrass clones selected from the 1989 putting green trial at Loft's Martinsville, New Jersey research farm.
2. The bentgrass clone obtained from John Morrissey.
3. Bentgrass plants selected from the progeny of a clone selected from a Southshore bentgrass production field in Oregon.
4. Plants selected from six of the bentgrass progenies in the 1991 putting green trial conducted at the Loft's research farm in Martinsville, New Jersey.
Poor performing plants from above identified breeders nursery were removed prior to flowering to increase uniformity of plant types and date of pollination.
Breeders seed harvested from this nursery was used to establish an experimental foundation seed increase field in western Oregon in 1994.
Fourteen years from the initial bentgrass breeding project conception in 1981, the first certified fields of L-93 creeping bentgrass were planted in the fall of 1995.
An application for Plant Variety Protection (PVP) was applied for L-93 creeping bentgrass on May 8, 1996 with the patent (PVP) application signed by Richard H. Hurley, VP, Research Director for Loft's Seed Inc.
During the ensuing confusion of the ABT bankruptcy the PVP application for L-93 was abandoned.
With the Agribiotech (ABT) corporate bankruptcy in 2000, the variety L-93 was auctioned off to Jacklin Seed, the highest bidder.
Since the ABT bankruptcy I have not had any involvement in the varitey L-93 to include breeder seed maintenance, foundation or certified seed production.
The variety L-93 is now 24 years old.
Copyright 2013 R.H. Hurley, LLC. All rights reserved.
ph: 570-350-8906
hurlrich