Everris’s grass variety breeding and selection programme is driven by its philosophy of integrated turf management.

Grasses in its extensive portfolio aren’t only selected for turf performance characteristics such as wear tolerance and shoot density, but also features that work in line with lower input management systems.

Everris grass seed trial plots in the Netherlands.

“Choosing the right grass species and blends for the application is important if the user is to minimise resource and financial inputs. That’s part of the Everris iTurf approach.’’

The Everris grass seed evaluation programme offers one of the most diverse varietal portfolios in the turf and amenity sector, catering for varying climatic conditions and management approaches. The company’s seed specialists take a dual approach to variety selection, sourcing the best available from European and American-bred, cool and warm season genetics. To achieve an accurate evaluation of a grass variety’s performance, independent screening trails are conducted to identify key characteristics.

A brand new mixture for 2014, ‘Premium Pitch’ contains a top performing Perennial Ryegrasses such as Shorty, rated highly on the BSPB Turfgrass Seed listings for live ground cover and visual merit, and Vermio, which has performed outstandingly on the French National list. Its rapid establishment capabilities in particular make it ideal for renovation programmes. Furthermore, it has excellent all-round disease tolerance and recovers rapidly from wear.

The Everris grass seed icon system highlights varieties that excel in one or more key characteristics. These are blended to create seed mixtures with all-round performance to suit all situations and locations.

Three new seed icons have been introduced:

• Sod/Turf 0/0 awarded to varieties with high purity levels free from problem weeds and grasses
• Disease Tolerance, which identifies varieties that exhibit all round disease tolerance applicable to their species type, and
• Low Maintenance, which indicates blends and varieties that require less cutting and those requiring lower nutritional requirement and disease control.

The new easy-to-use grass seed guide includes a selection of seed blends covering intensive sport use through to fine turf applications. They have been updated with new varieties from the Everris portfolio which are in-line with UK turf management conditions.

The brochure is available to download from the website at www.everris.co.uk