Green Spirit

Product Description

Green Spirit is a unique blend of diploid and tetraploid Italian ryegrass varieties. Combining tetraploid and diploid varieties maximizes the advantages each has to offer. Our tetraploid varieties provide high dry matter production, disease resistance to crown rust and improved palatability. Our diploid varieties are added for better persistence under grazing and improved traffic tolerance. These varieties also have improved dry matter production and winter hardiness compared to older cultivars. In regions with moderate climates, Green Spirit will be a biannual forage. When planted in the spring, seed heads do not emerge during the first year.

• Blend of diploid and tetraploid varieties
• Very resistant to heading when spring sown
• High yields of leafy forage
• Highest quality in the lineup
• Best variety for spring seeding in the North

The varieties used in Green Spirit require prolonged periods of cold weather for vernalization. Once vernalized the plant has the ability to produce seed heads which result in the loss of forage quality. Inferior products that imitate Green Spirit vernalize with much shorter periods of cold, producing seed heads soon after planting when spring night time temperatures drop. Green Spirit is a perfect high quality emergency feed. Compared to small grains, Green Spirit offers higher yields of higher quality forage for a lower seed cost. 

Green Spirit

Green Spirit is a winter annual plant that requires vernalization (a period of cold and reduced day length) to initiate heading. When sown in spring, very few seedheads will be observed throughout the seeding year. If fall sown, the plants will head profusely the following spring. Green Spirit is extremely high yielding and is typically the highest quality grass we know of. It’s lower cost and ease of seeding makeGreen Spirit an excellent choice as a nurse crop for other species or a great short term forage.

Establishment

Green Spirit can be sown by itself or sown in mixtures, serving as a nurse crop for slower establishing species. Planting depth should be 0.25 to 0.50 inches. Broadcast sowing into thin stands can be successful, but no-till drilling is the recommended method to thicken existing stands. Depending on the time of planting and conditions, the first harvest can come as early as 45 days after planting.

Management

If you have lots of nutrients on the farm, Green Spirit can be a good choice to utilize and recycle those nutrients. It can be easily used to extend thinning alfalfa or mixed stands for one more year. This will result in high yields of excellent quality forage without the hassle of a total stand renovation. With its upright growth habit, Green Spirit is better suited to mechanical harvest than grazing, but we have many folks who successfully graze it. Like perennial ryegrass, the waxy coating on Green Spirit retards drydown so it isn’t a good choice for dry hay.

Green Spirit Tech Sheet