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/753045
www.stma.org December 2016 | SportsTurf 31 study, the significant ingress of crabgrass and clover into the organic management system diminished wear tolerance, and recovery while summer patch disease was suppressed by the organic management system. There was significantly higher soil organic matter and soil available P (well above optimum) introduced with the organic management system compared to the conventional system. Soil physical properties such as soil infiltration rates, soil stability, aeration porosity and soil bulk density were unaffected by the two management systems. Sponsor: New England Regional Turfgrass Foundation. Efficient Irrigation for Recreational Turf in New England: Evapotranspiration and Crop Coefficients, by J. Scott Ebdon, PhD and Michelle DaCosta, PhD. This is a recently published study that was planted in the fall of 2009 to measure evapotranspiration (ET) losses from pure stands of Kentucky bluegrass (Touchdown) and perennial ryegrass (Exacta) maintained at sports and lawn grass height of cut (1.25 and 2.5 inch, respectively), and creeping bentgrass (Memorial) maintained at fairway (0.375 inch) and greens height (0.125 inch). Different N fertility rates including 2 and 4 pounds per 1,000 ft2 per year were also compared. Daily and monthly crop coefficients (Kc) derived from reference ET values from a near-by weather station and actual turf ET (weighing lysimeters) were measured during the summer irrigation season. Crop coefficients are values used to estimate ET rates for specific crops, in this case, for turf under different HOC and N. After 4 years of study the effect of HOC was the single most important cultural factor affecting ET and Kc values. Golf green and fairway turf used as much as 20% less water than taller HOC sports and lawn turf. Taller fairway HOC and lawn HOC turf used only 5% more water than their shorter HOC counter part maintain as either green or sport grass HOC. Fertilizing in summer with as much as 1.0 lb. N/1,000ft2 had little influence on turf water use because most of the total N used was in a slow-release form (i.e., 80%). Diminishing leaf growth rates and leaf area is one of the most effective strategies for lowering water use from recreational turf. Sponsors: New England Regional Turfgrass Foundation and the United States Golf Association. Improving Winter Hardiness of Annual Bluegrass Golf Green Turf, by Michelle DaCosta, PhD and J. Scott Ebdon, PhD. Annual bluegrass is a cool-season turfgrass species that is problematic on short cut turf such as golf and athletic turf due to its sensitivity to low temperature and ice cover. Different pigments and plant growth regulators and their rates are being compared to assess their effectiveness in preventing winter UMass-Amherst: Height of cut was the single most import factor affecting ET and Kc values in the irrigation of recreational turf.