Specialist grass seed breeder Barenbrug is showcasing its brand new Sports & Amenity Grass Seeds 2010 catalogue at Harrogate Week.

The 40-page catalogue is bursting with expert technical advice and information on subjects such as optimising overseeding, Barenbrug’s golf green differential input trial at the Sports Turf Research Institute (STRI) in Bingley and comprehensive species guide. It also, of course, includes full details of Barenbrug’s BAR Range, spanning close-mown and medium-fine turf, heavy-duty turf, equestrian, landscaping, wildflower and turf production mixtures.

Excitingly, the range has been joined by five innovative new mixtures – BAR Rubra, BAR GT Turf, BAR GT Sport, BAR OC and BAR Duo.

A 100 percent fescue offering, BAR Rubra is part of a range of 100 percent fescue mixtures designed to help greenkeepers increase or re-introduce highly desirable fescues to all areas of the golf course. This fast-establishing red fescue blend promises to produce attractive, open deep roughs that do not impede play, plus offers fast-establishment when overseeding semi-roughs to introduce finer grasses with improved disease tolerance and persistency.

And in an innovative new approach to mixtures for turf production and for new sowings for golf and sports turf applications, BAR GT Turf and Sport, and BAR OC have been designed to compete against the ingression of annual meadowgrass (Poa annua) in the sward.

BAR GT Turf and BAR GT Sport are non-GMO Glyphosate tolerant mixtures that harness ER 2703, a unique new cultivar of perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne) from the same breeding programme as Bargold, that will help produce a fine- or hard-wearing turf.

BAR OC, meanwhile, contains recently introduced cultivars Barhelene smooth-stalked meadowgrass (Poa pratensis) and Barmalia slender creeping red fescue (Festuca rubra trichophylla), both of which are extremely fast establishing for their species and help to out-compete annual meadowgrass (Poa annua) ingression during the early stages of establishment.

Barenbrug research and development manager Jayne Leyland says of the company’s latest launches: “We’re delighted to return to Harrogate Week with such a strong show line-up. The latest mixtures joining the existing BAR Range demonstrate our ongoing commitment to breeding and research in order to produce innovative solutions for the sports and amenity market.”

Jayne, however, is remaining tight-lipped about BAR Duo. “I’m particularly excited about this mixture,” she reveals. “This unique blend of browntop bent and creeping bent grasses promises a completely new approach to a 100 per cent bentgrass solution for golf greens for improved year-round performance, but visitors will have to come to Stand A23 to find out more!”