Thursday, 10 November 2005 - 10:35 AM
314-8

Salinity Monitoring of Turfgrass Sites.

Robert N. Carrow and Ian Flitcroft. University of Georgia, Crop & Soil Sci-GA Stn., 1109 Experiment St. Weed Science Rm2, Griffin, GA 30223-1797

As more turfgrass sites use irrigation water of lower quality, soil salinity is expected to become a predominant stress. Accumulation of total soluble salts can lead to physiological drought and specific ion toxicities/problems. Since soluble salts are very dynamic over time, by soil depth, and across the landscape, rapid means of assessing soil salinity would be beneficial. Assessing salinity changes is especially important for turfgrass sites due to their perennial nature and since water quality may vary over the year with wet and dry seasons. The study site was a seashore paspalum (Paspalum vaginatum) golf course in Naples, FL that irrigates with irrigation water of 5 to 9 dS/m salinity during the October to June period and the remainder of the year natural rainfall provides most of the irrigation needs. The soil was a loamy sand. In this study, soil salinity was determined at four soil depths by repeated mapping of a turfgrass fairway area using 4-wenner array electrical resistance. Additionally, in-place salinity monitoring was conducted using Sentek TriSCAN capacitance sensors at four soil depths. Monitoring methods and protocols will be discussed as well as utilization of the information for salinity control under turfgrass conditions.

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