The Effect of Wear and Soil Compaction On Sod Rooting and Plant Recovery From Wear Injury.

There is usually a short period of time when athletic fields are not in use and to restore the heavily damaged areas from wear by overseeding. Therefore these areas are often sodded with very little time for the sod to develop an adequate root system before the fields are again in use.   The objective of the study was to examine the influence of wear and soil compaction on sod rooting and spring recovery.  The sod was installed on a silt loam (coarse silty mixed nonacid, mesic Typic Udifluevent) and a sand rootzone in 2008 and 2009 at the Joseph Troll Research Center, University of Massachusetts Amherst.  Compaction treatments were applied using a plate vibrator compactor prior to sodding.  The wear treatment was simulated with a steel brush set at a height to injure the leaves and guided over the plots by movable tracks.  The plots were sodded with Kentucky bluebrass (Poa pratensis L.) blend in September 2008 and 2009.  Wear was initiated one month after sod installation and applied 6 times through November of each year.  Treatments were set out in a randomized complete block design with 3 replications. Wear significantly reduced rooting strength in the fall and the following spring compared to the non-wear treatments.  Root initiation from counts taken in mid-March 2009 and 2010 was significantly reduced due to the wear treatment that may explain the difference in rooting strength in the spring.  There was also a significant reduction in root biomass due to wear from samples taken in July 2009.  The turf on the silt loam from wear treatments was fully recovered by April 30, 2009.  However full recovery from wear in the sand rootzone was not complete until June 17, 2009.  The same trend in recovery is shown by the spring 2010 ratings. Wear main effects account for most of the variation in rooting and recovery with soil accounting for the balance.  Soil compaction had no effect.