Poa vs ryegrass root length
View LargerHealthy poa and ryegrass fairway sample from a California golf course. Ten representative plants from the poa plug and 10 plants from the ryegrass plug were carefully extracted and root length measured. Ryegrass plants had twice the root length compared to poa. The greatest impact will be access to water during high ETo days. Poa roots do not reach deep enough into the soil water reserve to make it through a day with and ET0>0.2 inches (0.5 cm). This is one of the reasons poa fails during the summer in fairways and roughs.