Tuesday, November 14, 2006
168-9
Greenhouse Establishment of Velvet Bentgrass (Agrostis canina L.) Turf.
John R. Watson, Alex Porter, Katerina Serlemitsos Jordan, and Eric M. Lyons. University of Guelph, Dept. of Plant Agriculture, E.C. Bovey Building, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada
Creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera L.) is widely used on golf course putting greens, in part because establishment practices are well understood for this turfgrass. However, creeping bentgrass is considered to be high input and there is rising interest in the use of alternate, lower input turfgrasses for putting greens. Velvet bentgrass (Agrostis canina L.) is believed to be an excellent alternative to creeping bentgrass but the establishment and management practices for this species of turfgrass are not well documented. The purpose of this study was to examine different methods for establishment of velvet bentgrass. Different rootzone media types (100:0, 95:5, 80:20, 70:30 Sand:Peat), seeding rates (0.5, 1.0, 1.5kg/100m2), phosphorus rates (0.25, 0.75, 1.25kg/100m2), and nitrogen rates (0.5, 1.0kg/100m2) were examined in a full factorial RCBD design. The study was completed under greenhouse conditions and had two stages: Establishment (weeks 1-4) and early fertility (weeks 5-9). Initial treatments were applied at seeding and initial dry weight accumulation (IDW), and estimated percent turf cover (PC) were measured at the end of week 4. For stage two, liquid fertilizer was applied weekly to each treatment group at the rates of 0.00, 0.01875, and 0.0375kg/100m2 for phosphorus, and 0.025 and 0.075kg/100m2 for nitrogen. Clippings (RDW) and NTEP quality rating scores were collected weekly and analyzed through repeated measures analysis in SAS. Results show that IDW was greatest in the 70:30 mix, while both 70:30 and 80:20 yielded higher RDW. However, the 95:5 and 100:0 root zones scored higher in quality. Seeding rate significantly affected both IDW and PC but had no effect on RDW. Quality ratings were highest for the 1.5kg/100m2 seeding rate. Both IDW and RDW were lowest at the lowest phosphorous rates. Nitrogen level had no significant impact on IDW or PC but was a significant contributor to RDW and turf quality.
Handout (.pdf format, 101.0 kb)