Golf Business News – Pure Dynasty with ACCE breaks new ground for the turfgrass industry

Pure Dynasty with ACCe, a new herbicide-resistant paspalum developed by Pure-Seed Testing and marketed by Atlas Turf International and Pure Seed, will be officially introduced at Seed Day, held at that company's research facility east of Rolesville, N.C. . Carolina, June 20.

Pure Dynasty with ACCe is the newest release of Pure-Seed Testing's award-winning breeding program, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. The new product, which represents the first herbicide-resistant paspalum, uses the ACCe technology developed by the University of Georgia (UGA).

Crystal Rose-Fricker, president of Pure Seed and Pure-Seed Testing, and her team conducted a multi-year, multi-site study to integrate UGA's ACCE technology into the paspalum varieties that currently make up the successful Pure Dynasty seeded paspalum hybrid. Pure Dynasty with ACCE is the result.

UGA professor Paul Raymer is credited with developing the paspalum ACCE technology. “For fifteen or twenty years, I have had the goal of identifying a species of paspalum with herbicide resistance, as I felt that this would be of great help in eradicating bermuda and other grasses in paspalum areas,” he said. “This is difficult – very difficult to kill bermuda – and I have long believed that this is one of the biggest obstacles to the adoption of coastal paspalum. I knew that mutations that produce resistance to ACCase herbicides had been reported in several varieties of grass, although not, until now, paspalum. We analyzed billions of cells and finally found a mutation that did what we needed.”

Rose-Fricker says: “Paul sent us the transgenic plants, and the Pure Seed Testing team spent years testing and selecting the best cross parents for the Pure Dynasty ACCe strains using natural breeding methods. We now have a large number of seeds harvested and ready for sale, enough for studies to be tested. Next year, we will have enough to completely renovate a few courses.”

Featuring all the advanced features of its name, Pure Dynasty with ACCE offers exceptional salt, aging, and disease tolerance with green color, medium to fine texture, strong density, and flexibility in high shear areas for wall-to-wall applications. However, the new strain adds improved tolerance to ACCE-inhibiting herbicides, including sethoxydim, fenoxaprop, fluazifop-butyl, and pinoxaden. This allows for control of unwanted annual and perennial grasses such as bermudagrass, crabgrass, goosegrass, tropical signal grass, and more.

John Holmes, president of Atlas Turf International, says: “Pure Dynasty with ACCE will make turf conversion easier than ever. Turf Managers will be able to integrate Pure Dynasty and ACCE into their existing facilities. As soon as the new paspalum is established, the old turf can be sprayed with any approved herbicide. The procedure applies to all turf areas, including greens, tees, fairways, and roughs, as well as fairways and landscaping. In most cases, the project can remain open to play through every change. ”

“There are other applications as well as differentiation,” said Rose-Fricker. “Let's say you're building a new course, and a lot of grass comes up while it's being built. Traditionally, you would have to fumigate with methyl bromide, but this is now banned in the European Union and many other parts of the world. But with this new seeded product, you will be able to spray with a regular herbicide and ensure the purity of your turf stand.

“Also, people are concerned about keeping bermuda out of paspalum because bermuda is aggressive. This has always been a challenge with other paspalum brands, but I feel that this new Pure Dynasty with ACCE will be a real game changer. “

Pure Dynasty with ACCE is non-genetically modified, using organic breeding methods, and is available only through Atlas Turf International and Pure Seed.