Turfgrass Research Field Day

Mississippi State University’s Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station officially released Celebration Hybrid™ Bermudagrass at the 2022 Turfgrass Research Field Day held in Starkville, MS. The new cultivar is the first release out of the “Celebration X” breeding program, which stemmed from the idea of cross-pollinating industry standard Celebration® Bermudagrass with numerous attractive Bermudagrass genotypes collected and maintained over the years at MSU to create new grasses. The goal of the program was to take the top characteristics of Celebration and develop new grasses with better cold tolerance, a finer texture, fewer seed heads, and less thatch. These grasses will be used in home lawns, golf courses, parks, and sports fields across the country and around the world. The Celebration X breeding program was initiated in 2014 as a partnership between MSU and Sod Solutions, a turfgrass research, development, and marketing company. Celebration Hybrid is the initial release from the Celebration X Program with more to be released next year and will have limited commercial availability by late Summer 2024. Celebration’s ability to block well, resist drought, and endure shade better than other Bermudas has made it one of the best options on the market over the past two decades. Five grasses from the Celebration X program were chosen to be entered into the National Turfgrass Evaluation Program’s 2019 National Bermudagrass Test. This is a five-year trial being conducted at universities across the nation and experimental varieties are evaluated along with commercial varieties. Progress reports for 2020 and 2021 have ranked ...