Using GPS to MAP SOIL Conditions in Turf Areas.

The increased emphasis on reducing water usage in the turf industry has increased the need for site-specific management. Precision Sense 6000 (PS 6000), a product of the Toro Co. in Minneapolis, MN, can provide site-specific soil information in turfgrass areas such as golf courses and sports fields on volumetric water content, soil salinity, soil compaction.  It also provides an estimate of turf vigor by measuring reflected energy from the turf canopy.  The PS 6000 is also capable of doing an irrigation audit, showing the distribution of water from the irrigation system.  These evaluations are performed in dryer conditions following irrigation.  A GPS system is used on the PS 6000 to give the specific latitude-longitude coordinates where data was collected. Once the data is collected and processed the results are displayed in Google Earth, which allows the operator to zoom in on a specific location on the site. Multiple layers can be displayed on Google Earth to allow for a comparison of turf vigor, compaction and soil moisture.  The increased focus on head injuries related to athletics has also led to the development of a mobile accelerometer to measure surface hardness of athletic fields by dropping a 2.25 kg hammer a known distance to the surface.  It is designed for use on both synthetic and natural grass athletic fields. To compare the measurements from the two machines, both machines were used on six natural grass soccer fields.  All the fields were irrigated.  Three fields were native soil while the other three were sand-based.  The objective of the research was to determine if the soil moisture and soil compaction measurements taken from the PS 6000 have a relationship to the surface hardness measurements taken by the mobile accelerometer.