Assesment of selfing and seed yield ratio in zoysiagrass breeding lines

Zoysiagrasses (Zoysia spp) are perennial warm-season turfgrasses commonly used in lawns, parks, golf courses and athletic fields in many countries. All of the Zoysia grasses, which are currently the subject of trade in Turkey, are seeded or vegetative varieties developed in breeding programs of foreign countries. This situation increases establishment cost of green areas. Therefore, breeding studies to develop our own cultivars in zoysiagrass are important. The objectives of this study were to reveal self fertility, open pollination ratio and turf performance characteristics of zoysiagrass breeding lines developed at Akdeniz University and to identify elite lines that can be used as parents for development of seeded cultivars. The study carried out using 250 interspesific hybrid Zoysiagrass lines and a randomized block design with three replications between 2020 and 2021. Commercial zoysiagrass cultivars including seeded type 'Zenith' and vegetative types 'El-Toro', 'Empire' and ' Ja-Mur' were used as control checks in the study. The 250 hybrids were subjected to phenotypic pre-selection for overall turf performance and flowering characteristics and 30 of them selected for further investigation. The data regarding cross pollination and selfing ratio, flowering characteristics, turfgrass quality, color, leaf texture, density of breeding lines were collected. The mean cross pollination ratio of breeding lines was %48 ranging from 41% to %63 and that of 'Zenith' was 43%. Self-fertility ratio was 7.9% for 'Zenith' and 5.6% for breeding lines ranging from 3.5% to 11.9%. There were significant differences among breeding lines and commercial cultivars for turf performances. As a result of the study, 12 breeding lines were determined, which exhibited a low selfing rate and high seed yield, and produced higher turfgrass quality, shoot density and fine leaf texture than the commercial check 'Zenith'. These lines can be used as parents to develop seeded-type native Zoysia grass cultivars.