Germinal Seeds has today announced the launch of its second, and highly anticipated, UK-bred Browntop Bentgrass cultivar, AberRegal. The new cultivar, offers greenkeepers great all round performance and added disease resistance and will be available to purchase from late July as AberMajesty – a blend of AberRegal and current favourite, AberRoyal.
AberRegal is Germinal Seeds’ second home-bred Browntop Bentgrass and the latest addition to the company’s Grade ‘A’ range of cultivars and seed mixtures. The new variety follows hot on the heels of AberRoyal – the first UK-bred Browntop Bentgrass – and is eagerly awaited by greenkeepers as it offers improved shoot density, fineness of leaf, unrivalled winter and summer greenness and superior overall disease resistance.
Bred at IBERS (the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences in Aberystwyth) as part of the institution’s UK-based amenity seed breeding programme, AberRegal was bred from material originally collected from Kent. As such, it perfectly complements AberRoyal which was originally sourced from West Wales.
“AberRegal and AberRoyal work well together by offering a blend of bentgrasses which will thrive in a range of UK climatic and soil conditions,” explains Richard Brown, Amenity Sales Manager for Germinal Seeds (GB). “It provides greenkeepers with improved genetic diversity and a sward with higher overall disease resistance against key threats such as Red Thread and Fusarium.
“AberMajesty is also the perfect solution for year-round golf courses where visually stunning greens are demanded by players, even during the depths of winter when the ability to fertilise for enhanced greenness is not possible. By combining AberRoyal with its winter and summer greenness scores of 6.8 and 6.6 with AberRegal at 6.9 and 6.9, greenkeepers can be confident that their green will remain as green as possible throughout the entire year.”
AberRegal was bred by Sheena Duller, Research Scientist and Plant Breeder at IBERS, who explains that the original plant material was collected from Marden Meadow in Kent in 1995. “Since then, a long series of selections have been made over a period of 12 years to enhance the cultivar’s turf performance,” Sheena says. “It has been extensively tested at the Sports Turf Research Institute (STRI) and has subsequently achieved National List registration. AberRegal was selected for its characteristic density of turf, disease resistance and longevity to produce a high quality, 100% British variety.”
With the first crop of seed successfully harvested and due to be available before the end of July, greenkeepers across the UK and Europe will soon be able to add diversity to the current list of bentgrasses used as part of their course’s seeding portfolio. Existing AberRoyal user, Simon White, course manager at The Chase Golf Club in Staffordshire, is one such greenkeeper who is looking forward to introducing AberRegal to his course.
“We started using AberRoyal at The Chase five years ago to improve the quality of our greens,” Simon explains. “It’s been a consistent performer for us and one we know we can rely on. However, we are always on the lookout for new cultivars and tend to use a blend of varieties to avoid creating a mono-culture of grasses and to help achieve our goal of true, consistent, all year round performing greens to please both our members and to meet our own high standards.
“I’ve been eager to use AberRegal ever since I saw it in development at IBERS in 2010,” Simon adds. “Blending AberRoyal and AberRegal together as AberMajesty is the perfect solution for us as it allows us to sow our greens with a mixture of pure, UK-bred Germinal varieties.”
AberRoyal, AberRegal and AberMajesty are available exclusively via Germinal Seeds.
AberRoyal is sold through a network of distributors in Scandinavia, Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Greece and Turkey where it has developed a strong base of users who appreciate its ability to perform well across a broad range of climates. AberRegal will soon be available in these countries as well.
Germinal Seeds www.germinalamenity.com