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/49194
Some of the colorants we will be testing were from existing product lines but many are newly introduced colorants. The rapid increase in new products is in response to the growing interest in using colorants. products performed much better due to the greater background color at the time of application. This is a very important point. Subsequent tests have proven that some background color goes a long way. Applied to semi-dormant turfgrass, the color will look better and may last longer. For optimum results, do not wait until the turfgrass is straw brown. Some of the colorant-treated turf took a bluish tint over time (56 days after treatment). Regardless of application volume, Re- green had the greatest propensity to turn a bluish tint. Titan Green Turf also turned bluish when applied to dormant turf. Further- more, Bermuda Green turned a bluish gray to blue on both grasses. These products may not be as color-stable over time compared to others but if the product is reapplied, even at a lighter rate, this may not be a significant issue. So, it may be important to think about how you want to use these products before selecting the product. Some field managers like to put lighter rates on their field more frequently. If that is the case, then color stability is less an issue. Applying the colorants at 160 gpa provided turf color increases up to 44 percent greater than the 80 gpa treatments. Applying col- orants at rates above 80 gpa also resulted in increased color longevity over the winter season. We did not expect to see such a significant rate response in longevity of the products. More re- search is needed in this area to fully understand how to best use this information. I often get asked, what is the best colorant? But in fairness, no one turf colorant was clearly superior on both grasses in terms of natural green color at the time of application and 56 days after ap- plication. Results from our earlier studies generally indicated that the colorants with the best natural green color did not generally last as long as some of the others. And with almost double the number of products available to field managers today versus just a few years ago, I can hardly wait to see how some of the newer products com- pare to some of the industry standards. There is no doubt, some turf colorant products can provide an attractive green putting sur- face at a reduced cost compared to overseeding. ■ Dr. Grady Miller is a professor with the Crop Science Department of North Carolina State in Raleigh. www.stma.org SportsTurf 19