New cool season turfgrass species: "TTRF"

[Green]

TTRF is here! Also called turf type Festulolium, this is a hybrid species bred from Fescue and Ryegrass. The grower is calling it "American Ryegrass" instead. (Whereas Perennial Ryegrass has been called "English Ryegrass" according to Beard, 1973.

The new cultivar in this species is called "Minuteman". It's a cross between Perennial Ryegrass and Meadow Fescue. Meadow Fescue is the less widely known brother species to Tall Fescue. It tends to form a dense sod and has high uniformity and a medium leaf texture (e.g. similar to that of TTTF or KBG, I guess) according to Beard (1973).

Some other Fescue and Perennial Rye cultivars have had the other species bred in, but none to this extent.

Not sure what advantages TTRF might have over TTTF or TTPR. If any.

[turf_toes]

I’m over the hybrid miracle grass claims.

Every few years something new is released that is supposed to be a game changer. (RTTTF, hybrid blue grasses, etc) Give it a few years and let’s see what happens. So far I’ve seen nothing that beats the traditional grasses. Ymmv

[MorpheusPA]

Kinda ditto, and I'm unsure if this is a crossbreed or genetic insert. I'm trying genemod flowers this summer and I have modest hopes for them. If they work, wonderful.

[Green]

I hear you guys. I'm all for this, but I'm not sure why it would have any advantages over PR or Fescue, since it's a hybrid of the two. The limit is already there.

Hey Morph,

Are you still considering going TTTF in some areas this Fall? You had mentioned it as possible and were asking me about fine textured TTTF cultivars a while back after having apparent damage to your KBG, I believe. Or is your KBG still holding up and on its way to full recovery?

[Green]

And here is all the genetic info you could want, from the patent:
https://patents.justia.com/patent/20200337253
Should answer anyone's questions...if you have time and effort to follow all the crosses.

[MorpheusPA]

I skipped it, mostly because my supervisor left and I kind of got dumped with half the workload. And I took a portraiture class. Then I got promoted. It turned out to be a busy fall and winter. There are entire subsections of the lawn that are not doing as well as I might hope, but I'm still torn between fescue and/or rye, or simply resigning myself to yearly reseeding no matter what I do due to the maturing tree in the middle of the lawn.

Looking at the patent, it looks like a crossbreed, which is most odd. I would not have thought one could crossbreed the species like that and that a hybridization was not possible (not that it doesn't happen in other plants, like my delightful Thuja standishii x plicata, or animals like the liger or Irish wildcat, but it's generally unusual).

[Green]

Tall Fescue has been reclassified as part of the Ryegrass family or complex. It happened in the past 10 or 15 years I think. Reason? The two species are compatible and can be interbred because they’re closely related. So it doesn’t surprise me you can cross them easily. And the Meadow Fescue species they see, while a curious choice instead of TTTF, is almost the same as TF genetically.

The part about easy transition in warm season over seeding is not confidence inspiring. Supposedly Meadow Fescue isn’t as heat tolerant as TF. But it might be more drought tolerant.


It’s a good start and this was a long time coming. I wondered when it was going to happen. But I’d still like to a hybrid between actual TTTF and PR. Meadow Fescue hasn’t been used in turfgrass for many decades as far as I know. Funny that someone brought it back for this project.