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: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/162108
FieldScience each year, simulated traffic was applied at a level of six events per week using a Brinkman traffic simulator, with traffic ending during the first week of November in order to simulate a typical fall high school football schedule. The lower bare ground ratings of fall fertilization will also lead to faster spring green-up and recovery, allowing for a longer active growth period to increase traffic tolerance for the upcoming sports season. Table 1: VISUAL PERCENT TURFGRASS COVER RATINGS of three bermudagrasses as influenced by traffic and fall N fertilization programs (Aug (A), Aug+Sept (AS), or Aug+Sept+Oct (ASO)) in their establishment year. Table 2: VISUAL PERCENT BARE GROUND RATINGS of trafficked and non-trafficked bermudagrasses ('Wayland', 'Riviera', and 'Patriot') prior to spring greening as influenced by fall N fertilization programs (Aug (A), Aug+Sept (AS), or Aug+Sept+Oct (ASO)) or cultivar in their establishment year. PICTURE TAKEN APRIL 12, 2011 during spring green-up illustrating the percent bare ground of the trafficked plots as compared to the non-trafficked plots. 'Patriot' had less bare ground than the other two cultivars. 18 SportsTurf | September 2013 RESULTS Establishment year data will be emphasized for this report. Rate of establishment was monitored by tracking visual percent turfgrass cover throughout the weeks following establishment. Two weeks after planting in June 2010, Patriot achieved 50% coverage whereas the other two cultivars had not reached 40% coverage. All grasses reached 95% or greater turfgrass cover by August 6, with Patriot covering the quickest, followed by Riviera and Wayland. The establishment rate of Patriot gives it an advantage over the other two cultivars because Patriot will have time to form a dense canopy to better withstand the fall traffic. This was shown to be true by percent turfgrass cover ratings taken on October 18, 6 weeks after initial traffic treatment. Percent turf cover of trafficked plots was significantly higher in Patriot than Riviera which was significantly higher than Wayland. Compared to the 100% covered non-trafficked plots, trafficked Patriot had 75.8%, Riviera had 72.5%, and Wayland had 67.1% coverage. Patriot tolerated more traffic in its first growing season, suggesting it would be the premier choice for high-use fields during the first football season. The greater traffic tolerance of Patriot compared to the other grasses is further supported by visual percent bare ground ratings prior to spring green-up. Data taken April 12 show Patriot to have significantly less bare ground than Riviera and Wayland which both had greater than 30% bare ground. Even though Patriot has less bare ground in early spring, Wayland and Riviera greened www.sportsturfonline.com