Tuesday, November 14, 2006
171-7
Responses of Kentucky Bluegrass to Soil Saturation.
Kehua Wang, Purdue University, 915 W State St., Department of Agronomy, West Lafayette, IN 47907 and Yiwei Jiang, Agronomy Dept, Purdue University-Agronomy Dept., Purdue University, 915 W. State Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907.
Waterlogging (WL) affects growth and the physiological responses of turfgrass. The objectives of this study were to compare relative WL tolerance of Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis L.) cultivars and to investigate the physiological responses of shoots and roots to WL. Different types of ten cultivars were subjected to 30 d of WL. Turf quality (TQ) and soil redox potential (Eh) decreased with increasing periods of WL. Significant differences in chlorophyll content (Chl), root water soluble carbohydrate content (RWSC), root electrolyte leakage (REL), and root oxidase activity (ROA) were observed among the cultivars exposed to WL. The variations for Chl, RWSC, REL, and ROA were 32, 56, 41, and 41 % under WL conditions, respectively. REL was correlated to soil Eh, TQ, Chl, ROA, RWSC, and RDW. The best correlations were observed between Eh and TQ (r = 0.74***), REL and TQ (r = 0.75***), RDW and RWSC (r = 0.74***), and ROA and RWSC (r = 0.63***), respectively. ‘Moonlight’ was the most tolerant cultivar, followed by ‘Serene’ and ‘Limousine’, particularly when grasses were exposed to short-term WL. ‘Kenblue’ and ‘Eagleton’ were the least tolerant cultivars. ‘Unique’, ‘Awesome’, ‘Champagne ’, ‘Julia’, and ‘Midnight II’ ranked in the middle group. Large variations in WL tolerance among Kentucky bluegrasses could potentially be used for enhancing turfgrass management.