ROOT AND SHOOT CHARACTERISTICS OF PRAIRIE GRASS COMPARED TO TALL FESCUE AND SMOOTH BROME GRASS DURING ESTABLISHMENT

The root and top characteristics of 'Grasslands Matua' prairie grass ( Bromus willdenowii Kunth) during establishment were compared with 'Joh nstone' tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) and 'Saratoga' smoot h brome grass (Bromus inermis Leyss). 'Grasslands Matua' was slower to emerge than both tall fescue and smooth brome grass, but by first har vest (52 days after sowing), prairie grass had longer tillers (51 vers us 38 and 26 cm), a greater number of seed heads (15 versus 0.3 and 0. 1), and a higher stem/ leaf ratio (0.95 versus 0.14 and 0.01) than smo oth brome grass and tall fescue, respectively. There were no differenc es in 2-year mean tiller populations, leaf area, leaf yield, and stem yield between prairie grass and smooth brome grass at first harvest. T wenty days after sowing there were no differences in root length densi ty among the three species. However, by first harvest, prairie grass a t 20 cm depth had 135% of the root counts of the other two grasses. At 40 cm, prairie grass had 130 and 200% of the counts of smooth brome g rass and tall fescue, respectively. The increased rooting of prairie g rass was even more pronounced at the 80 cm depth where it had 160% of the smooth brome grass counts and 310% of the tall fescue root counts. Trend analysis resulted in linear, quadratic, and cubic responses for root growth with soil depth for smooth brome grass, tall fescue, and prairie grass, respectively.