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/183915
FieldScience | By Dr. Dale J. Bremer and Dr. Jason D. Lewis Which Kentucky bluegrass cultivars perform better with less water? F ield research at Kansas State University indicates that water requirements may differ significantly among cultivars of Kentucky bluegrass (KBG), depending upon desired turfgrass quality. Given the certainty of periodic drought, limited water availability, and increasing irrigation costs, having choices of KBG cultivars that may maintain better quality with less water is an attractive option. Ideally it would be helpful to select a turfgrass that can perform well with less water. A helpful concept when discussing KBGs is their classification into phenotypic groups. Individual cultivars of KBG are classified into phenotypic groups based on common growth and stress performance characteristics gathered from field trials. Previous research has indicated that such groupings may be useful in predicting drought tolerance. Because cultivar turnover is rapid in the turfgrass industry, determining the relative irrigation requirements of phenotypic groups may enable researchers to predict irrigation requirements of cultivars not included in any particular study. Using a rainout shelter (Fig. 5), we compared seasonal irrigation amounts among 28 KBG cultivars for two growing seasons. By shielding plots from rainfall, water could be withheld until wilt symptoms were evident. Our objectives were to identify KBG cultivars and phenotypic groups that main- 14 SportsTurf | October 2013 tain better visual quality with less irrigation, using wilt-based irrigation. We hypothesized that if visual quality was good at the beginning of the season, we could maintain minimally acceptable quality in KBG (for example, for a moderately-maintained lawn or golf course rough with in-ground sprinklers) by irrigating when at least 50% of a given cultivar showed signs of wilt. Two hybrid bluegrasses were also included in the study. METHODS This study was conducted at the Rocky Ford Turfgrass Research Center near Manhattan, KS. Data were collected for 105 days in 2007 (June 19 - Oct. 1) and 108 days in 2009 (June 22 - Oct. 7). Turfgrasses included 28 KBG cultivars and two hybrid bluegrasses (Table 1). Commercially available cultivars of KBG were selected to in- FIGURE 5. Well-watered plots at beginning of dry-down study (4 June, 2007) (left). Plots at two months into the study (4 Aug., 2007), in which drought stress is evident in plots of Kentucky bluegrass (right). Plots were sheltered from precipitation by the rainout shelter (upper left in each photo), which automatically moved on the tracks to cover the plots during rainfall. Photos by Jason Lewis. clude representatives from major KBG phenotypic groups (Note: In the results section, only groups with three or more cultivars were used when comparing groups.) Also, because visual quality was of interest, cultivars were selected based on performance in National Turfgrass Evaluation Program (NTEP) trials. The plots were maintained well watered until the study began each year. Thereafter, water was withheld until 50% or more of a plot displayed drought stress. Water (2.54 cm) was then applied by hand to the individual plots. Turfgrass quality and drought stress symptoms were evaluated daily. This process continued until the end of the study, after which all plots were re-watered and allowed to recover. Plots were mown weekly at 7.6 cm. Turfgrass quality evaluations, based on color, density, and uniformity of the canopies, were made using a visual rating scale of 1 to 9, with 1 = brown turf, 6 = minimally acceptable for a home lawn or golf course rough, and 9 = optimum turf. Drought stress was defined as the turf displaying wilting, failure of the canopy to remain upright after foot traffic, and a general darkening color of the turf. Because changes in drought stress were sometimes rapid from www.sportsturfonline.com