SportsTurf

October 2013

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.

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FieldScience Figure 2. DAYS TO WILT BETWEEN IRRIGATIONS among Kentucky bluegrass cultivars and hy- brid bluegrasses, averaged over the periods June 19 - Oct. 1, 2007 (105 days) and June 22 - Oct. 7, 2009 (108 days), at Manhattan, KS. in Mid-Atlantic and Compact America than in all other groups (Fig. 4), indicating cultivars in Mid-Atlantic and Compact America could generally go longer without irrigation. VISUAL QUALITY With the exception of the Common types in 2007, the visual quality of all bluegrasses was acceptable (>6) at the beginning of the study in each year (Fig. 5, top). In all bluegrasses and in both years, however, visual quality declined to below what was considered minimally acceptable (Fig. 5, bottom). This indicates waiting until 50% wilt to apply irrigation was insufficient to maintain acceptable visual quality in KBG, at least for turf managers who desire a moderate standard of quality in the stressful climate of the transition zone. Perhaps visual quality could have been maintained at acceptable levels by applying water when only 25% of the plot exhibited symptoms of drought stress; further research is required. Our method may be appropriate, however, where the primary concern is water conservation and some dormancy is acceptable. Visual quality in all bluegrasses generally remained above four and recovery was rapid in the fall after resuming irrigation. Although visual quality declined to less than six in all cultivars, the time required to do so ranged widely from 8.1 d in Kenblue to 44.8 d in Blue Velvet. The decline was slower in Blue Velvet, Award, Midnight, Cabernet, Unique, and Nu Destiny (36 to 44.8 days) than in Park, Baron, Wellington, and Kenblue (8.1 to 14.2 days). Thus, four of five cultivars in the Compact Midnight group maintained quality longer than all cultivars in the Common group (Table 1). Continued on page 44 Left: Figure 3. WATER APPLIED TO KENTUCKY BLUEGRASS PHENOTYPIC GROUPS, averaged over the periods 19 June to 1 Oct. 2007 (105 days) and 22 June to 7 Oct. 2009 (108 days), at Manhattan, KS. The same letter above bars denoting different phenotypic groups indicates no significant difference. Right: Figure 4. DAYS TO WILT BETWEEN IRRIGATIONS AMONG KENTUCKY BLUEGRASS PHENOTYPIC GROUPS, averaged over the periods 19 June to 1 Oct. 2007 (105 days) and 22 June to 7 Oct. 2009 (108 days), at Manhattan, KS. The same letter above bars denoting different phenotypic groups indicates no significant difference. 16 SportsTurf | October 2013 www.sportsturfonline.com

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