PRODUCTION AND QUALITY OF ST-AUGUSTINEGRASS ON A POMONA FINE SAND

St. Augustinegrass [Stenotaphrum secundatum (Walt.) Kuntze] has been g rown on organic soils in south Florida since the 1930's. However, this grass has not produced or persisted well on mineral soils, even thoug h it is extensively grown as a turfgrass. The purpose of this paper is to report dry forage mass, nutritive quality, persistence, and total non-structural carbohydrates (TNC) of three St. Augustine-grasses mana ged at four mob-grazing frequencies. The experimental design was a spl it plot with three randomized complete blocks of 2-, 4-, 6-, and 8-wk grazing frequencies (GF) as whole plots and grass entries ('Floralawn' , 'Roselawn', and FX-33) as subplots. Annual fertilization was 168-23- 86 kg ha-1 N-P-K with N split in March, July, and September. Grazing f requency had little influence on dry forage mass, persistence, and TNC , but affected (P less-than-or-equal-to 0.05) forage quality. St. Augu stinegrass entries influenced (P less-than-or-equal-to 0.05) forage ma ss, grass persistence, forage quality, and TNC. Generally, crude prote in (CP) and in vitro organic matter digestion (IVOMD) decreased (P les s-than-or-equal-to 0.05) as GF was delayed from 4 to 6 wk. Roselawn pr oduced 24% and 39% more forage than other entries during the warm and cool seasons, respectively. Entry FX-33 was the least persistent under grazing, averaging 43% infestation by common bermudagrass (Cynodon da ctylon (L) Pers. var. dactylon) after 3 yr of grazing. This entry gene rally was lower (P less-than-or-equal-to 0.05) in IVOMD (530 g kg-1) c ompared with the average for Roselawn and Floralawn (580 g kg-1) durin g the warm season. These data indicate St. Augustinegrass is not a des irable species for forage on a mineral soil.