BERMUDAGRASS SURFACE HARDNESS VARIES WITH CULTIVAR

摘要

A field experiment was designed to test the surface hardness of 21 bermudagrass (Cynodon spp.) cultivars.The study was conducted during the autumn of 2005 (9 dates) and 2006 (8 dates) on mature turf.A 2.25 kg Clegg Impact Soil Tester was used to determine peak deceleration values and three random first drops were recorded and averaged for each plot on each weekly sampling date.Soil moisture content was determined on each sampling date.Thatch accumulation of each cultivar was measured in winter 2007 after all hardness measurements were complete.More rainfall in fall 2006 caused surface hardness to be lower than 2005.Testing for correlation revealed a significant negative relationship between surface hardness and soil moisture content.There were significant differences in surface hardness of bermudagrass cultivars each year and on most dates of measurement.The cultivars ’MSChoice’ and ‘Celebration’ had consistently lower surface hardness values across all dates of measurement.‘Tifway’ and ‘Tifsport’ were often among cultivars with highest surface hardness.There were significant differences in thatch accumulation among cultivars after the hardness measurements were concluded.Celebration and ‘Aussie Green’ had the greatest thatch depth while ‘Yukon’ and Tifsport had low thatch accumulation.