Using Wetting Agents to Improve Sod Establishment Success
($6,534, 2019) One of the biggest challenges following sod transplant is maintaining adequate soil moisture to prevent wilting and possible failure of newly placed sod. Tis is especially true for remote sites without automated irrigation, where laborious hand-watering may be required. Wetting agents are known to reduce surface tension of water and improve vertical and lateral distribution of water in the soil. Newer classes of wetting agents that include moisture-retaining polymers can increase soil water-holding capacity and the amount of plant-available water for sod after transplant. Over 90 percent of golf turf managers use wetting agents, but the technology has not been widely adopted by the landscape and turfgrass production industry. Te objective of this study is to determine whether soil wetting agents improve sod establishment when applied before harvest or at the time of transplant.
In the summer of 2019, Kentucky bluegrass sod will be harvested from a commercial sod farm in or near Dane Co., WI (exact location to be determined). Te experiment will be a split-plot randomized complete design with three replications. Half of the wetting agent treatments will be applied to sod on the commercial field two weeks prior to harvest. Sod will be harvested to a depth of 1.5-inches and transplanted to the OJ Noer Turfgrass Research and Education Facility in Verona, WI, near a mobile structure (rainout shelter) that will be moved over the plots when rainfall occurs. Tis will eliminate the influence of natural precipitation which would obscure the impact of the wetting agent treatments. Te remaining wetting agent treatments will be applied immediately after transplanting the new sod. After transplant, all plots will be watered once, and half of each split-plot will be allowed to dry until the sod wilts. Te other half of the split plot will be watered every third day. Te sod will be monitored daily for 21 days after transplant.
To quantify the degree of wilting, the chlorophyll index of each plot will be measured with a Spectrum CM 1000 chlorophyll meter. A thermal-infrared FLIR camera will be used to measure surface temperature of the sod and capture surface heating that may result from lack of transpiration. Visual quality of the sod will be quantified with a 1-9 visual scale where 1 represents dead grass, 9 represents perfect grass, and 6 is minimally acceptable. Volumetric water content of plots will be quantified with a handheld TDR probe. Te combination of visual turfgrass quality
TPI Turf News September/October 2019
and volumetric water content will be used to calculate any differences in water use efficiency and potential water savings among the treatments.
Te goal of this research is to reduce the amount of sod spoilage that occurs after transplant resulting from water stress, giving landscape managers more flexibility and time between water events. Tis could be a valuable tool for landscape managers who manage sites with recently laid sod. Tere is also potential for sod producers to create a value-added product that is pre-treated with a wetting agent that could be injected through irrigation systems, broadcast as a dry material, or sprayed through a traditional boom sprayer.
Call for Research Proposals and
Producer Member Committee Service Te Lawn Institute will continue to release its annual Call for Research Proposals each August and work hard to fund research that is impactful to TPI members. If you have an interest in getting involved, the TLI Research Committee is currently looking for producer members to serve. Commitments include two conference calls each year and a one-hour meeting at the annual TPI International Education Conference to discuss and select proposals. If you are interested in serving, please contact Duane Klundt, the TLI Research Committee Chairperson at
DuaneKlundt@GrasslandOregon.com.
Casey Reynolds, PhD, is executive director of Turfgrass Producers International.
All photos and graphics for this article have been supplied by the research team of the research project in which they appear.
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