Turf: Selection, Establishment, and Maintenance

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Chapter 13

• Turf Selection, Establishment, and Maintenance

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• Turfgrasses are among the oldest species used by
  human beings to fashion the outdoors into
  residential and recreational areas that suit
  their needs.
• Today, full-service lawn care corporations are
  leading profit makers among landscape
  professionals.
• The main reason for the ongoing interest in
  turfgrass and improved turf care is because
  nothing has ever surpassed a top-quality lawn as
  the ideal outdoor surface.

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• Residential use is the term used to describe turf
  associated with private homes, estates, and
  apartment and condominium complexes.
• Commercial use is the term used to describe turf
  associated with corporate landscapes, shopping
  centers, and office buildings.
• Municipal is the term used to describe turf
  associated with civic buildings, community
  centers, highway dividers, and airports.
• Recreational use us the term used to describe
  turf associated with parks, golf courses, country
  clubs, stadiums, and athletic fields.

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Can you label these?
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• Correct selection of turfgrass for landscape
  requires knowledge of
• Landscapes
• Geographic regions
• Soil types
• Altitudes
• Environmental conditions

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• Turfgrasses are monocotyledons, meaning they have
  only one seed leaf in the embryo, whose growing
  point is at the crown near the soil.
• One of the objectives of good turfgrass
  management is to encourage growth as quickly and
  as uniformly as possible.

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Different ways grass produce new shoots

• Rhizome-producing (rhizomatous) the shoots
  produced beneath the soils surface and send new
  plants to the surface.
• Stolon-producing (stoloniferous) the shoots
  produced extend outward from the parent plant
  along the surface of the soil.
• Bunch-type new lateral shoots termed tillers
  are produced from axillary buds within the leaf
  sheath.

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• Rhizomatous and stoloniferous grasses tend to
  reproduce more quickly and evenly than bunch-type
  grasses.
• Leaf texture is mostly a measure of the width of
  the leaf blade. The wider the blade the coarser
  the texture.
• Generally, fine textured grasses are considered
  more attractive.

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• Density refers to the number of aerial leaf
  shoots that a single plant or species produce.
• Seed size varies greatly among grass species.
  Fine-textured grasses have small seeds
  coarse-textured grasses usually have much smaller.

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Categories of Grasses

• Cool-season grasses favored by daytime
  temperatures of 60 75 degrees F.
• Warm-season grasses favored by daytime
  temperatures of 80 95 degrees F.

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• Purity the percentage, by weight of pure grass
  seed.
• Percent germination the percentage of the pure
  seed that was capable of germination on the date
  tested.
• Crop seed the percentage by weight of cash crop
  seeds in the mixture. These are undesirable for
  lawns.

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• Weeds the percentage by weight of weed seeds in
  the mixture.
• Noxious weeds this is usually the number of
  noxious weeds per pound or ounce of weed seeds.
• Inert material the percentage, by weight, of
  material in the package that will not grow.

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• Grass seed is commonly formulated as either a
  mixture or a blend. A mixture combines two or
  more cultivars of a single species. A blend
  combines two or more different species of grass.
• 3 factors to consider when deciding installation
  method
• Species of grass
• The type of site
• Immediacy of the need for usable turf

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• Four methods of installing turfgrass
• Seeding
• Sodding
• Plugging
• Sprigging and stolonizing

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• Seeding is the most common and least expensive
  method of establishing a lawn.
• A hydroseeder is a spraying device that applies
  seed, water, fertilizer, and mulch
  simultaneously.
• Sod is established turf which is moved from one
  location to another.

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• Plugging is the most common method of installing
  lawns in the southern sections of the U.S.
• A sprig is a piece of grass shoot.
• Stolonizing is a form of sprigging. The sprigs
  are broadcast over the site, covered slightly
  with soil, then rolled or disked.

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Six steps to a successful lawn

• Plant at the proper time of year.
• Provide the proper drainage and grading.
• Condition the soil properly.
• Apply fresh, vigorous seed, sod, plugs, or
  sprigs.
• Provide adequate moisture to promote rapid
  establishment of the lawn.
• Mow the new lawn to its correct height.

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• Grading can alter level land so that is slopes
  slightly.
• Proper drainage permits the water to move slowly
  into the soil to the turfs root system where it
  can be absorbed, yet pass beyond the root zone
  before it collects and does harm to the plants.
• Drainage is critical to the survival of the lawn,
  no matter what the species.

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• Most turfgrasses grow best in a loam or sandy
  loam soil with a pH that is neutral to slightly
  acidic. (7.0 to 6.5)
• Proper seeding is applied to the prepared soil in
  a manner that will distribute the recommended
  quantity evenly otherwise, a patchy lawn
  develops.

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• Proper installation of sod includes installing
  sod as soon as possible to its cutting. Keep the
  soil moist, and do not try and stretch the
  strips.
• Proper plugging includes setting them into the
  conditioned soil at regular intervals (12-18 in.)
  and in staggered rows to maximize coverage.
• Proper sprig installation requires planting two
  to three inches deep in rows 8 to 12 inches
  apart. Distribute evenly over the prepared soil
  and push down into soil with a stick.

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• The soil and developing grasses should not be
  allowed to dry until the new grass is about two
  inches tall.
• The first objective when mowing a lawn for the
  first time is to encourage horizontal branching
  of the new grass as quickly as possible.

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Two types of spreaders

• Rotary dispenses the material from a closed
  hamper onto a rotating plate that then propels it
  outward in a semicircular patter.
• Drop spreader dispenses the material through
  holes in the bottom of the hamper as it is pushed
  across the lawn.

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• Windy days are not suitable for calibration.
• Patching is warranted where bare spots are at
  least one foot in diameter.
• Aeration of the lawn is the addition of air to
  the soil.
• Proper aeration cuts into the soil about three
  inches deep and either removes plugs of the soil
  or slices it into thin furrows. These holes allow
  for better air flow into the soil.

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• Vertical mowing is a technique that can break up
  the soil plugs left by an aerator or even remove
  excess thatch if necessary.
• Lawns should be fertilized just before they need
  the nutrients for their growth.
• Cool-season grasses should be fertilized early
  spring and early fall.
• Warm-season grasses should be fertilized in late
  spring.

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• To obtain the fullest benefit from fertilizer, it
  should be applied in an amount the turfgrass can
  use fully before it reaches beyond the root zone.
• Turfgrasses are among the first plants to suffer
  from lack of water since they have shallow roots
  as compared to trees and shrubs.
• The best time of day to water lawns is early in
  the morning.

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• Watering early morning is most efficient because
  watering late in the day will result in greater
  evaporation. Watering in the early evening or
  later can promote disease because turf pathogens
  thrive in lawns that remain moist late in the
  evening.

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Three types of Mowers

• Flail used for utility and stabilization
  turfgrasses that are only cut a few times a year.
• Reel blades rotate in the same motion as the
  wheel.

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Cont.d

• Rotary blades move like a ceiling fan, cutting
  the grass off as they revolve.

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• Not to be confused with patching, overseeding is
  the planting of new seed into an established turf
  area to extend its time of use.
• Selectivity is an important characteristic of
  turf herbicides so that the desirable grasses are
  not damaged by the control effort.

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• Weeds are only one of the pests that affect turf
  installations.
• With turf, as with any crop, the best defense
  against most pests is the selection of resistant
  varieties and the creation of a growth
  environment that favors the turfgrass more than
  pest.