The Impact of Soil Amendments On Divot Recovery.

Field experiments were conducted at the Lewis-Brown Farm in Corvallis, Oregon during the summer of 2010 to evaluate various soil amendments for divot recovery potential under sun and shade conditions while being irrigated once daily. A randomized complete block design featured uniform divots measuring 12"x 3.5". Divots were made using a modified gas powered edger. The treatments applied contained individual and mixed amendments of Geohumus (1% v/v), Axis (10% v/v), Lassenite ATS (10% v/v), and Dakota Peat (10% v/v). The remaining volume for each treatment was sand (present in all 22 treatments) and perennial ryegrass seed (present in 11 treatments). Overall 3 replications of 22 treatments were duplicated in full sun and morning shade conditions. Initial applications were made on 20 Jul 2010 and pictures were taken weekly using a light box and digital analysis software that measured percent green cover; analysis was performed starting one month later on 20 Aug 2010. Data were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) and means were separated using Fisher's Protected LSD (a=0.05). Due to the timing of irrigation (once every morning), means were not statistically significantly different for the divots grown in full sun; however, divots grown in morning shade had higher overall percent green cover due to extended growing conditions for the irrigation amounts received. The divots grown in the shade with seed had 50% green cover, while divots grown in the shade with no seed had 41% green cover. Treatments that performed best in shade that included seed were Geohumus and the combination of Geohumus and Axis at 59% and 58% green cover, respectively. Sand by itself with no seed had 29% green cover. Incorporation of soil amendments in divot mixes shows potential for enhancing divot recovery rates.