4turf® is a range of turf tetraploid perennial ryegrass varieties, developed to be quick-establishing, deep-rooting and tolerant to stress. It offers unique stress tolerance together with fast and strong establishment even at low temperatures.
4turf® varieties are more resilient than diploid perennial ryegrass varieties. They have better stress-tolerance and recover faster after periods of extreme temperatures and disease attack. The extra set of chromosomes in 4turf® variety gives you a healthy, high-energy plant that needs minimal input to keep your turf green and inviting. 4turf® is a more sustainable solution.
4turf® has an outstanding tolerance to Microdochium patch.
Individual varieties of 4turf® perennial ryegrass
4turf® needs less water during a drought. The improved root architecture is more efficient in exploiting the natural water reserves that keeps it green for longer. When the rain returns, 4turf® varieties recover faster.
In drought trials conducted in France’s Loire Valley and at the RadiMax root screening facility, 4turf® varieties were superior drought-tolerant compared to diploids.
4turf® plants have deep roots
4turf®’s improved year-round stress-tolerance creates a healthy, turf with better resistance to weed invasion and improved tolerance to disease. Compared to traditional varieties of perennial ryegrass, 4turf® becomes greener sooner, and stays greener for longer.
4turf® has exceptional winter performance. Trials in Finland carried out in a cold and harsh climate proves FABIAN’s superior winter hardiness. 4turf® was also the top performer for general turf quality when tested in independent Scanturf trials.
Clean irrigation water is a scarce resource, and even more so in the future. The good news is that 4turf® copes with salinity, no matter where it comes from: salt in the soil, salt spray, or contaminated irrigation water. Our 4turf® turf tetraploid perennial ryegrass varieties are proven to be significantly more salt-tolerant than diploid perennial ryegrasses varieties. You get better plant growth and healthy looking turf.
DLF offers 4salt® mixtures that perform well in saline conditions. Since these mixtures also perform well where there are no salinity problems, it’s a wise precaution that protects your turf from potential changes in the quality of your irrigation water.
4turf® is resistant to dog pee. In public spaces, it is by far the safest and most cost-effective way to reduce dog patches. Pee-resistant 4turf® helps you keep a lush green surface on which dogs and other park users can run and play, while demanding minimum maintenance from your groundsman.
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In its original, diploid state, perennial ryegrass has two sets of chromosomes. By using a natural substance, our R&D team have developed tetraploid varieties with four sets of chromosomes. These are our 4turf® varieties.
The route to tetraploidy is long because first-generation plants produce a mixture of diploid and tetraploid shoots within the same plant.
To obtain plants that are 100% tetraploid, we have to go through a series of selections of individual shoots. We count the number of chromosomes on each shoot so we can pick out the tetraploid ones. Since perennial ryegrass is an outbreeding species, a single plant is not enough to create a variety. We need several plants to make a population that avoids inbreeding depression. And we have to prove that our selected tetraploid perennial ryegrass plants perform better than their corresponding diploids.
For more information on the 4turf® story see our 4turf® brochure.