A SURVEY OF BIOSTIMULANT USE ON FOOTBALL TURF AND EFFECT ON ROOTZONE MICROBIAL POPULATIONS

摘要

A range of over 100 biostimulant products are now available on the UK market and these arepromoted widely to sports turf managers. In a questionnaire survey of football facilities in Britain, it was found that 22% of respondents have used different types of biostimulants as a part oftheir management regime. The products most commonly applied were bacterial mixtures, carbon products (simple sugars) and seaweed. The costs of different products varied considerably,as did their efficacy. One of the main aims of biostimulant use is to increase the soil microbialcommunity. Two aspects of this were measured, total bacterial abundance, using phospholipidfatty acid analysis and arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi, using Lolium perenne as a bait plant.In most cases, those facilities that used biostimulants had higher levels of bacteria and fungi inthe pitch rootzone, than non-users, indicating a microbial benefit from their use. However, theeffect varied between the products used, with those containing carbon producing the greatestresponse. It was concluded that cost does not always reflect benefit and more research is required to establish actual effects on different pitch types and to analyse the effects of usingseveral different products in combination.