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PERSPECTIVES

Tifton 85 Bermudagrass—Early History of its Creation, Selection, and Evaluation

Dep. of Crop and Soil Sciences, Univ. of Georgia, Coastal Plain Exp Station, USDA-ARS, P.O. Box 748, Tifton, GA 31793

Corresponding author (forage{at}tifton.cpes.peachnet.edu)

	ABSTRACT

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From 1953 to 1983, USDA entomologists and I tried to use 10-d weight gains of fall armyworms, Spodoptera frugiperda (J.E. Smith), to measure the quality of bermudagrass, Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers., forage. Tifton 68, Coastal, and Tifton 292 bermudagrasses fed to armyworms enabled them to make 10-d gains of 147, 50, and 8 mg. In 1984, we space planted 145 Tifton 68 x Tift 292 F₁ s in deep sand and in the fall selected 13 of the largest plants showing the least drought injury. Of these, entry 13 (`Tifton 85') outyielded other entries in a 3-yr-32-entry small plot test. In duplicate 0.81-ha pastures, Tifton 85 produced 47% more steer gains than `Tifton 78'.

	Creation

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From 1953 to 1967 Elmer Beck, USDA entomologist, and I tried to develop a 9-d laboratory procedure that could use the growth rate of the fall armyworm as an index for determining the forage quality of bermudagrass genotypes. We hoped to create a test that would produce a positive correlation between armyworm gains and steer gains when consuming the same bermudagrass genotype. Much progress was made but results were never published.

Leuck et al. (1968) screened 441 bermudagrass accessions for resistance to the fall armyworm. Nine days after infestation, they found two clones resistant, nine intermediate, and 430 susceptible. Resistant clones were Tifton 292 and Tifton 296 (PI 290884) from South Africa.

Lynch et al. (1983) measured the weight gains of fall armyworms fed nine different bermudagrasses for 10 d. Tifton 68, developed from Kenya introductions (Burton and Monson, 1984), Coastal, and Tifton 292 enabled armyworms to weigh 147, 50, and 8 mg, respectively. They stated that "none of the larvae fed Tifton 292 survived to pupation."

These extreme differences between Tifton 68 and Tifton 292 caused us to cross them in 1983 to study the inheritance of armyworm resistance. In the spring of 1984, we planted on 3- by 3-m (10 by 10-ft) centers in the deep sand, 145 F₁ plants of the cross Tifton 292 x Tifton 68. Armyworms did not appear in that deep sand planting. We never tried to introduce armyworms into that planting probably because both Lynch and I had lost interest in our original objective. During the summer of 1984, we observed differences in growth and drought tolerance in the 145 F₁s. The deep sand provided an excellent drought tolerance screen for the 145 F₁s.

	Selection

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In the fall of 1984, we selected 13 of the largest plants showing the least drought injury in the deep sand planting. Stolons of these selections were used to plant 30, 5-cm clay pots each of Coastal and other hybrids to make a total of 32 entries that were planted in 5-cm pots at the same time.

On 2 April 1985, we planted a field experiment in a randomized complete block with five replications, using the 32 bermudagrass genotypes growing in 5-cm pots. The soil had been treated with methyl bromide and 560 kg/ha (500 lb/A) of 5-10-15 fertilizer and 112 kg/ha (100 lb/A) of N. Each 2.7- by 4.9-m (9- by 16-ft) plot was planted with six plants set in a single row in the center of the plot.

Plots were harvested on 9 June 1985 and an additional 112 kg/ha of N was applied. Additional harvests were taken on 20 July and 21 Sept. 1985. The same fertilizer treatments were continued and three harvests were taken in 1986 and again in 1987. Samples were taken at each harvest for IVDMD (in vitro dry matter digestibility) analysis.

The 3-yr dry matter yields of the parents, Tifton 68 and Tifton 292, 13 of their F₁ hybrids, and 19 other hybrids made Selection 13 our best choice. A second 3-yr test of the same 32 entries conducted from 1987 to 1989 proved that Selection 13 was significantly better than the other 31 of our best bermudagrass hybrids.

Selection 13 was named "85" for the first year that it was subjected to a 3-yr replicated small plot test with 31 other entries. "Tifton", our trademark was added to its name when it was released and registered as "Tifton 85 bermudagrass" in Crop Science (Burton et al., 1993).

	Evaluation

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To evaluate Tifton 85 performance under grazing, we compared it with Tifton 78, our best hybrid. In a 3-yr grazing study, it produced 36% more liveweight gain than Coastal. Two 0.81-ha pastures of Tifton 78 and Tifton 85 (Selection 13) were planted and grazing with steers was begun in 1989. During the following 3 yr, steers on Tifton 85 produced 47% more liveweight gain than those on Tifton 78.

The Information Sheet entitled Tifton 85 Bermudagrass (Burton et al., 1992) presents most of what we have learned about its establishment and management. It describes a 3-yr grazing study in which steers grazing Tifton 85 continuously from mid-April to mid-October gained an average of 0.67 kg per day and produced 1155 kg/ha of liveweight gain at a fertilizer cost of 12.6¢ per kg of gain. The other side of the information sheet lists the name, address, and telephone number of 63 growers of certified sprigs of Tifton 85.

Received for publication April 27, 2000.

	REFERENCES

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• Burton, G.W., R.N. Gates, and G.M. Hill. 1992. Tifton 85 bermudagrass. Information Sheet, Coastal Plain Exp. Stn., Tifton, GA.
• Burton, G.W., R.N. Gates, and G.M. Hill. 1993. Registration of Tifton 85 bermudagrass. Crop Sci. 33:644–645.[Free Full Text]
• Burton, G.W., and W.G. Monson. 1984. Registration of Tifton 68 bermudagrass. Crop Sci. 24:1211.[Free Full Text]
• Lynch, R.E., W.G. Monson, B.R. Wiseman, and G.W. Burton. 1983. Bermudagrass resistance to the fall armyworm (Lepidoptera:Noctuidae). Environ. Entomol. 12:1837–1840.
• Leuck, D.B., C.M. Taliaferro, G.W. Burton, R.L. Burton, and M.C. Bowman. 1968. Resistance in bermudagrass to the fall armyworm. J. Econ Entomol. 61:1321–1322.

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