Research Progress Report 286 Project 807 March, 1967
1966 Tall Fescue Sod Planting Results with Corn, Grain Sorghum And Forage Sorghum at the Forage Farm
Maurice E. Heath, Agronomy Department *
James L. Williams, Jr., Department of Botany and Plant Pathology

Tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea, Schreb.) is unexcelled in its adaptation and growth characteristics to stabilize slopes and protect hillsides from erosion in the unglaciated sandstone-shale soil region of southern Indiana. The fragipan soils in this area are often extremely wet or extremely dry. Summer drought is common -- 80 percent of the years. Currently, the main use of tall fescue by hill land farmers is either pasture or hay. The more ways that can be found to use tall fescue profitably the greater its value to farmers.

One suggested use of tall fescue sod is for sod planting of summer annuals. This has raised several questions of prime importance to the area farmers -- (1) is it possible to use tall fescue as a side-hill foundation sod in which to plant corn and the sorghums?; and (2) if so, can herbicides and management practices be found to provide temporary sod dormancy instead of completely killing the sod? In an attempt to seek information to provide possible answers to these questions a sod planting experiment was initiated at the Forage Farm in the spring of 1966.

Procedure
An 8-year-old tall fescue sod was selected with northerly and easterly slopes, and having inclines varying from 8 to 18 percent. The plot size was 13.3’ x 30' allowing for four 40-inch rows per plot. A 2 x 3 x 4 factorial design was used and included three herbicide treatments (none; paraquat 1 lb./ acre; and atrazine 2 lbs./acre + paraquat 1 lb./acre), four summer annuals (none; corn; grain sorghum; and forage sorghum), and two levels of nitrogen **/(100 lbs./acre; and 200 lbs./acre). The herbicides were applied May 10. All fertilizer except the starter fertilizer was surface applied the last week in April. Because of prolonged rain and wet soil conditions the sod planting (see Figure 1) was delayed until May 25. Twenty feet of the middle two rows were harvested to measure crop response.

Observations and Results

Herbicides: Although paraquat alone gave a quick foliage kill, the grass soon developed new shoot and leaf growth. The only herbicide

* Appreciation is expressed to Dr. Glenn R. Klingman, Department of Crop Science, North Carolina Agri. Exp. Sta., for his suggestions and encouragement.

** The nitrogen fertilizer (solution 32) and its application was the courtesy of Allied Chemical Corporation.

PURDUE UNIVERSITY • Agricultural Experiment Station • Lafayette, Indiana