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/726375
8 SportsTurf | October 2016 www.sportsturfonline.com FIELD SCIENCE University of Kentucky Z oysiagrass for sports turf. Zoysiagrass has long been considered unacceptable for athletic fields because its rate of recovery is quite poor compared to other grasses. There are, however, many beneficial reasons to consider zoysiagrass, including excellent wear tolerance, shade tolerance, tolerance to high and low air temperatures, C4 photosynthetic pathway (reduced water usage compared to C3), and stolons and rhizomes for footing and recovery. Although the above are all great reasons for using zoysiagrass, the few athletic facilities that have tried it over the years have quickly moved to a different species because of the recovery concern. However, because there are several new cultivars available, a study was designed to test recovery of zoysia cultivars following traffic. Zoysias used in the study included the Zoysia japonica cultivars 'Meyer' and 'Compadre'(seeded), and the Zoysia matrella cultivars 'Diamond' and 'Zeon'. Cultivars were planted by sprigs or seed during the summer of 2014 and traffic was initiated beginning July 2015 and repeated in July 2016. Traffic was applied 17 times over a 6-week period with a Brinkman traffic simulator in two directions on each event. Nitrogen (urea) was applied every 2 weeks beginning early June at rates of 0, 1/4, 1/2, and 1 lb. N/1000 ft2 until September. Following the traffic period, digital images were taken for recovery analysis each week until recovered. Initial data taken immediately following the traffic period showed that Compadre (35%) and Meyer (36%) had significantly less cover than Diamond (44%), which was less than Zeon (56%). By 4 weeks after traffic, turf cover had improved to 84% for Meyer, 89% for Diamond, 91% for Compadre, and 95% for Zeon. Nitrogen rates were also important in that no nitrogen caused more plot disruption during traffic and less recovery following traffic. Excessive nitrogen (1 lb. N/1000 ft2 every 2 weeks) was also not beneficial as there were no differences between the ½ lb. and 1 lb. rates at any observation date. Fraze mowing. Fraze mowing research being conducted at UK includes fraze mowing bermudagrass as a pre-plant treatment to improve perennial ryegrass overseed and fraze mowing to convert old bermudagrass cultivars to new and improved cultivars. The overseeding study is being conducted with the University of Tennessee and we've found that removing the bermudagrass canopy with a fraze mower is a UPDATES ON UNIVERSITY RESEARCH OF INTEREST TO TURF MANAGERS Editor's note: Once again we have asked some of the nation's leading turfgrass research programs to share some details on what they are currently working. Look for more updates in coming issues. Bluegrass and bermudagrass cohabitating the same space. Notice the difference in color on the plot compared to the bermudagrass only area to the left. Effect of traffic on zoysia cultivars and N rates following 17 traffic events. Nitrogen treatments are from low to high (right to left) in each image. L to R: Meyer; Diamond; Zeon; and Compadre.