Thursday, November 16, 2006 - 7:30 AM
315-1
Rooting in a Creeping Bentgrass Putting Green in Response to Summer Aerification.
Root growth and physiological processes of creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera L.) in response to different aerification practices in summer has received little study. The objectives of this 2005 field study were to examine the effects of aerification management (i.e., core cultivation) on turf quality and rooting during the summer months. ‘Southshore’ creeping bentgrass, which was managed as a putting green, was subjected to spring only (1.25 cm in diameter tines on 9 May) versus summer aerification (0.64 cm in diameter tines on 2 June, 22 June, 14 July, and 4 August) regimes. Rooting was assessed using the minirhizotron imaging technique. Both spring and summer aerifications caused a transient reduction in turf quality and color, and full turf recovery occurred in approximately 2 to 3 weeks. When data were analyzed over the entire root system, summer aerified bentgrass generally exhibited longer total root length, larger total root surface area and greater total root volume, when compared to spring aerified bentgrass. A significant decrease in root length, surface area, and volume, however, was observed with summer aerification at the 1.3 cm to 2.0 cm soil depth, when compared to spring aerification. Summer aerified bentgrass generally had a greater root length, root surface area, and root volume between 2.0 cm and 15.5 cm soil depths, when compared to spring aerified bentgrass. Significant differences in rooting were not observed at soil depths ranging from 15.5 cm to 23.6 cm between the two aerification regimes.
Recorded presentation