EVALUATION OF GROWTH RATE AND AESTHETIC PARAMETERS OF SEVERAL BERMUDAGRASS CULTIVARS IN SOUTHERN ITALY

This note presents the preliminary results of the first testing year and concerns the comparison between different cultivars (‘Princess’, ‘Riviera’, ‘Yukon’, ‘Laprima’, ‘SR9554’, ‘Mohawak’, ‘Sultan’, ‘Shangrila’, ‘Sahara’, ‘Yuma’, ‘Sydney’, ‘Arizona common’) of seed-propagated bermudagrass. Among the tested cultivars, ‘Princess’ has shown the lowest cumulative growth (500 mm) as compared to the other cultivars; the major quality indices tested have also shown the highest values for this cultivar (Aesthetic general appearance= 7.4, Color index= 7.5 and Green cover percentage= 96%). A high influence of rainfall was observed during the testing period since July was characterized by high (102 mm) and equally distributed rainfall, that promoted the highest values of the aesthetic parameters.