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Daily light integral requirements for bermudagrass and zoysiagrass cultivars: Effects of season and trinexapac‐ethyl
Author(s) -
Chen Zhaoxin,
Wherley Benjamin,
Reynolds Casey,
Hejl Reagan,
Chang Baoxin
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
crop science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.76
H-Index - 147
eISSN - 1435-0653
pISSN - 0011-183X
DOI - 10.1002/csc2.20515
Subject(s) - cultivar , biology , cynodon dactylon , horticulture , cynodon , growing season , zoysia japonica , agronomy
Shade is a major problem facing turf managers worldwide. Availability of low‐cost devices and methods for quantifying daily light integral (DLI) offer the turf manager the ability to more precisely determine DLI levels in shade, yet minimal DLI requirements for acceptable turf quality (DLI m ) for many commonly used warm‐season turf cultivars grown under longer‐term chronic shade stress have not been extensively tested. The objectives of this 2‐yr field shade study were to (a) determine effects of growth regulator trinexapac‐ethyl (TE) and season (summer or fall) on DLI m of nine commercially available bermudagrass ( Cynodon spp.) and zoysiagrass ( Zoysia spp.) cultivars; (b) determine effects of shade level and TE on summer percent green cover and root growth; and (c) determine effects of shade treatments on soil temperatures across the growing season. Significantly higher DLI m were noted during summer compared to fall for all cultivars in the study. The DLI m were generally higher for bermudagrass than zoysiagrass cultivars. ‘Tifway’ required the highest DLI m (ranging from 23.5 to 27.2 mol m −2 d −1 ) of the bermudagrasses. ‘TifGrand’, ‘Celebration’, and ‘Latitude 36’ showed comparable DLI m during summer and fall. Fewer consistent differences were detected between zoysiagrasses, with ‘Zorro’ and ‘Zeon’ showing the lowest summer DLI m (18.1 and 19.1 mol m −2 d −1 , respectively) and ‘Geo’ showing the lowest fall DLI m (11.7 mol m −2 d −1 ). Trinexapac‐ethyl reduced DLI m only in Zorro, ‘Palisades’, and ‘JaMur’ zoysiagrass, but had no effect on bermudagrass DLI m . The DLI m for a number of cultivars were higher than those previously reported in the literature, which may be attributed to lower mowing heights and/or use of permanent shade structures that were not removed for the duration of the 27‐mo study. The findings should benefit turf managers by guiding data‐driven, seasonal‐based, warm‐season turfgrass cultivar selection for shaded environments.