Grazer Orchard grass Blend - Early, Medium, and Late Varieties
We have blended together three different orchard grass varieties to give you a pasture that will develop at three different stages. This blend of Amba, Progress, and Athos orchard grasses make a winter hardy and drought tolerant blend.
Amba is a very winterhardy and thoroughly proven orchardgrass sold to many countries in the world where early abundant forage production is important. A key benefit of Amba is that the digestibility is higher than many other early maturing orchardgrass varieties. Amba is resistant to diseases such as Mastigosporium and rust. Amba has the ability to tolerate hard night frosts after spring growth has started. Amba has been trialed with good results as it has outperformed older varieties such as potomac. Amba performs well in mixtures with other grasses and legumes, making it a vey desirable item for blends with other grasses and legumes.
Progress is a medium maturing cultivar with strong resistance to stripe rust and moderate resistance to scid. Progress has produced good forage yields and has persisted well under difficult environmental conditions. With excellent disease resistance and winter hardiness along with long stand life and excellent stand density make this orchardgrass excellent for continued cutting and grazing.
Athos is one of the latest maturing varieties available on the market, with a heading date that is usually about a week later than Pennlate. The excellent disease resistance and good winterhardiness of Athos combine to give long stand life and good stand density. Athos is also noted for having good fall growth, which translates to an even yield distribution the entire growing season.
I'll look into these varieties for you. What is the purpose of your seeding. Are you covering a grading project or is this for forage?
Method of Breeding - The first crosses were made in 1962, involving, as parental varieties: Aries, Russian No. 27863, 2 Icelandic Numbers, Szehass - File, soft leafed CB and Roskilde lines. Forty-five families were selected from the crosses on the basis of yield and persistence.
Intended Use - Hay and pasture production.
Description - Growth habit is medium to semi-erect; spring growth is early to medium. Leaves are medium green; mature plant height is tall; heading date is earlier than Prairial or Sumas; maturity is medium early. European data indicate Amba is resistant to purple eye-spot and susceptible to leaf rust and yellow stripe rust. Amba performed well for forage as compared to the check varieties in western Canada. In Europe, Amba exhibits good winter-hardiness, seed yield and good digestibility.
Adapted to - Recommended in Canada for use in British Columbia.
Released - Danish Plant Breeding Ltd., Boilshoj, Denmark. Registered in Canada in 1986 as registration no. 2623.
Breeder Seed/Stock - Danish Plant Breeding Ltd., Boilshoj, Denmark.
Certified Seed/Stock - Available.
Preparer/Additional Information - Agriculture Canada, Food Production and Protection Branch, Plant Products Division, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0C6. Seed is distributed by Topnotch Nutri Ltd., P.O. Box 1030, Abbotsford, British Columbia V2S 5B5.
So, at least two out of three of those varieties appear to be exotic, and I would hazard that the last of the three could be a problem for you if it gets out of hand by virtue of its high productivity and late season drought tolerance. Unless you have a lot of land and a way to control it, I would be careful.
Which brings me to your purpose in selecting the seed. For example, if it is simply to be a cover crop for an orchard, there might be better choices that don't compete so successfully with the trees for water. If your purpose is to provide forage for grazing animals such as horses, you probably have made a good choice as long as it doesn't get out of hand and cause your neigh-bores (sorry) a weed problem.
If your purpose is to cover for grading, some of the native grasses are probably better in the long run, but they are pricey. Elkhorn Native Plant Nursery has the best price and selection on those in this area. Good people.