Establishing seeded tall fescue with covers and drip irrigation methods

Abstract

The use of covers may improve the establishment of seeded turfgrass but their use in combination with drip irrigation techniques has not been evaluated. In this study, repeated twice in the spring of 2020 near Manhattan, KS, we investigated the effects of two cover types and three irrigation methods on the establishment of seeded tall fescue turfgrass [Schedonorus arundinaceus (Schreb.) Dumort.]. Turfgrass cover types included (a) polyester mesh, (b) a straw blanket, and (c) no cover as a control. Irrigation treatments were (a) subsurface drip irrigation, (b) aboveground drip irrigation, and (c) overhead sprinkler irrigation (control). Measurements of green cover, ground and drone-based normalized difference vegetation indices, and visual turfgrass quality ratings indicated that establishment was improved with both cover types compared with uncovered plots, in the order polyester > straw > uncovered in both trials, but polyester and straw became similar over time. The soil surface temperature averaged higher in polyester (14 ˚C) than in straw (9.5 ˚C) and uncovered (8.6 ˚C) plots during the first 12 d after seeding when the covers were installed. The results indicate that covers improved the spring establishment of seeded, cool-season turfgrass in a fine-textured soil and in a U.S. transition zone climate by mitigating low temperature extremes and reducing erosion during rainfall. Establishment was similar between drip (subsurface and aboveground) and sprinkler-irrigated treatments, but the use of protective covers is recommended when establishing turfgrass from seed.

Considerations with using unmanned aircraft systems in turfgrass

“…However, recent sUAS studies have indicated moderate to strong correlations between ground-and sUAS-based measurements of spectral reflectance in turfgrass. Correlations between ground-and sUAS-based NDVI ranged from r=0.63 to 0.97 in a number of turfgrass studies (Caturegli et al, 2016;Hong et al, 2019b;Zhang et al, 2019b;Friell and Straw, 2021;Bach et al, 2022aBach et al, , 2022b. Hong et al (2019b) also reported strong correlations (r=0.69 to 0.87) between sUAS-based broadband NIR (about 680-780 nm) and ground-based narrowband NIR (around 780 nm) in drought-stressed turfgrass.…”

“…A camera is inserted on the top of the metal box to take pictures. Various turfgrass parameters are derived from DIA such as PGC, turf color, turfgrass establishment, drought stress, divot analysis, wear tolerance, and disease analysis (Patton et al, 2007;Steinke et al, 2010;Trappe et al, 2011aTrappe et al, , 2011bKarcher and Richardson, 2013;Bach et al, 2022aBach et al, , 2022b. This method has worked well in turfgrass research except that it remains time consuming for turfgrass breeders to collect pictures on thousands of field plots in a timely manner.…”

Effects of drip irrigation and cultivation methods on establishment of seeded tall fescue

“…The tall fescue seed blend included the cultivars Copious (38.67% purity), Reunion (38.56% purity), and Starfire II (22.27% purity) (All Pro Transition Blend, Lesco Inc.). The study area was then covered with a 0.5‐oz polyester mesh frost protection blanket (DeWitt Company) to prevent seed movement during potential heavy rain events (Bach et al., 2021). The cover was removed when shoots began to appear, which was approximately 1 week later on 6 October in 2019 and 30 September in 2020, to avoid damage to seedlings when covers were removed.…”