Evaluation of the soil surfactant Qualibra on sandbased putting greens.

Project start date: 1 januari 2015
Projects completion date: 1 juli 2016

Facts

Principal investigator (PI):

Trygve S. Aamlid, Norwegian Institute for Bioeconomy (NIBIO), Department for Urban Greening and Environmental Technology, Turfgrass Research Group, Landvik, Reddalsveien 215, 4886 Grimstad, Norway.

Phone: +47 90 52 83 78. E-mail: trygve.aamlid@nibio.no

Co-applicants:

Agnar Kvalbein, NIBIO Turfgrass Research Group, Norway

Final report Evaluation of the soil surfactant QualibraPDF:s

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Project objectives

To determine the effect of the soil surfactant Qualibra on soil water content, turf quality and thatch accumulation on a creeping bentgrass green varying in water availability.

Project summary and status 1 January 2017


Soil surfactants applied to turfgrass can either be polymers that retain water in the rootzone, penetrants that improve water percolation, or dual-purpose products combining both functions. The ability of surfactants to prevent dry spots is well documented, but less information exists about surfactants in situations with excessive rainfall or irrigation. Thus, the objective of this research was to study the turfgrass responses to monthly applications of Syngenta’s dual-purpose surfactant Qualibra under restricted or excessive water supply on a USGA-spec. putting green at NIBIO Landvik, Norway. Restricted water supply implied irrigation to field capacity once a week (FC1) in 2014, a warm and dry summer, and deficit irrigation to 60 % of FC (DEF1) in 2015, a cool and wet summer. Excessive irrigation was carried ut twice a week (EX2) with 50 % more water than needed to replenish FC in both years.

On average for irrigation treatments, Qualibra decreased the volumetic soil water content (SWC) of the 7.5 cm topsoil from 19.3 to 16.6 % in 2014 (P<0.01) and from 19.1 to 17.1 % (P<0.05) in 2015. This shows that Qualibra primary acted as a penetrant under these irrigation treatments. In 2015 there tended (P<0.10) to be an interaction as the reduction in SWC was stronger with EX2 than with DEF1 irrigation, and this was accompanied by reductions (P<0.05) in thatch thickness and ignition loss on plots receiving EX2 irrigation. The surfactant reduced soil water repellency as shown by the the water droplet penetration test significantly regardless of irrigation treatments, and improved turf quality significantly on plots with DEF1 irrigation.In conclusion, the dual-purpose surfactant Qualibra have various benefits depending the amount of natural rainfall / irrigation. 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