Golf course superintendents throughout California know they have to get all they can from every drop of water available to them - which at times isn't much. Researchers at the University of California Riverside are working to find ways that will help turf managers from throughout the state and across the country tap into even more smart water-use habits.
Researchers from UCR provided a glimpse into some of that work at this year's Turf and Landscape Field Day held in September at the university's turfgrass research facility.
Preliminary findings from that research, conducted by Marco Schaivon, Martino Cuccagna, Katarzyna Jagiello-Kubiec and Jim Baird, Ph.D., indicated that adequately fertilized Bermudagrass can be managed with less water under a program that includes regular applications of Revolution, a wetting agent from Aquatrols, and Syngenta's Primo Maxx plant-growth regulator.
According to the material presented during this year's field day, researchers applied a combination of Primo Maxx (0.25 ounces per 1,000) and Revolution (6 ounces per 1,000) or Revolution alone to Princess 77 Bermudagrass plots under six fertilizer programs. Identical sets of plots received irrigation at 40 percent of ET and 70 percent of ET.
Ratings were collected on 14 dates from mid-May through Mid-August.
According to the preliminary results, "all ratings collected at the beginning of the study showed that Bermudagrass was significantly affected by lack of N fertilization. However, grass recovered quickly after the first application of N, and no differences between ET replacements were found until the beginning of July. Plots treated with Revolution achieved a sufficient rating of 6 or higher for two months even when irrigated at only 40 percent of ET. After July 8, no plots irrigated at 40 percent of ET achieved acceptable quality, although plots treated with Revolution, alone or in combination with Primo Maxx, showed consistently better quality of plots than those that did not receive Revolution. At 70 percent ET, plots that received both Primo Maxx and Revolution had higher visual quality in comparison to all the other treatments on four ratings dates, including during the entire month of August."
The researchers concluded that "maintaining sufficient fertilization (5 pounds per 1,000 per year on Bermudagrass) and regular use of Primo Maxx and Revolution are the most powerful tools to manage Bermudagrass with less water."
The study is ongoing.
Revolution is the market's only commercially available modified methyl capped block copolymer wetting agent. Because of its molecular structure, Revolution is hydrophilic, or water-loving, which influences how it bonds to hydrophobic coatings that cause water repellency, according to a paper written by the late USGA Green Section agronomist Stan Zontek.
Revolution's properties also have been shown to affect turf density and recovery in spring, said Stan Kostka, Ph.D. of Aquatrols.
Other ongoing research on Revolution's properties is being conducted at the University of Arkansas, and research in Holland suggests it can enhance the conversion of organically bound nitrogen.