SportsTurf provides current, practical and technical content on issues relevant to sports turf managers, including facilities managers. Most readers are athletic field managers from the professional level through parks and recreation, universities.
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/791889
www.stma.org March 2017 | SportsTurf 21 N is common and applying a majority of the N at this time is physiologically beneficial and a good management practice for cool season turfgrass species, which are the reasons for implementing the timing schedule in this study. Additional work is also needed to evaluate N2O evolution following PCU application to cool season turfgrass early in the growing season for both ramping temperatures in the spring and relatively high temperature throughout the course of the study during the summer season. Although not different during the time period of the study, it is of great consequence to note that there were significant visual improvements for PCU>urea>control at site 2 early in the following spring with visual ratings of 4.2, 3.2, and 2.4, respectively. The results of our study show that PCU never performed worse than traditional urea applications and this visual improvement suggests that PCU may not only be superior over urea in terms of environmental parameters, but also with regard to visual improvement. Further work needs to be done to evaluate this potential long-term effect. Specifically, N concentration in turfgrass was maintained significantly higher in the order urea > PCU > control. However, no other root and shoot samples taken at other times or sites were significantly different in N concentration. The lack of treatment effects at site 2 may have been related to a large relatively fresh N pool, high organic matter, and/or high CEC. It is also noteworthy that sampling occurred about 8 d later after fertilization at site 2 compared to site 1. A more rapid release of N to turf from urea compared to PCU explains higher N content from urea application at site 1, which difference disappeared at the last sample date. CONCLUSIONS Our findings indicate the health and appearance of the cool season turfgrass mixture of Kentucky bluegrass/perennial ryegrass can be maintained or improved by utilizing PCU in place of uncoated urea fertilizer; with the added benefit of mitigating environmental losses as N2O and NH3, and possibly NO3-N. Our research identifies no downside to PCU use under these conditions. Given the concerns for global climate change, reductions of the magnitude reported herein of the very potent N2O greenhouse gas deserve further investigation under various environmental conditions in all fertilized landscapes. Joshua J. LeMonte, PhD is with the Dept. of Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Delaware; Bryan G. Hopkins, PhD, and Von D. Jolley, PhD are with the Plant and Wildlife Sciences Dept., Brigham Young University. We thank Brigham Young University (BYU) for providing funding and the many BYU students that worked to assist on this research. We also thank Richard Terry and Bruce Webb, BYU Professors for technical assistance with this project. List of references is available on www.sportsturfonline.com