Abstract
In order to determine the effect of the hydrogel content in the soil substrate on the number of shoots per unit area of grass lawns with different proportions of red fescue and monoculture turf produced from the following fescue cultivars: Adio, Libano, Corail, Simone. In the period 2003-2004, a field experiment was carried out in a randomized block design in four replications. In combination with a hydrogel (Aqua-Gel P4), 0.05 kg x m<sub>-2</sub> of sorbent was placed at a depth of 10 cm below the soil surface in 2002. Another experimental factor was the type of fertilizer. Trawovit (a fertilizer with standard effects) and Sierrablen (a controlled-release fertilizer) were used for this purpose. The quantities of fertilizer and time of fertilization date followed manufacturer's instructions. The number of shoots per 1 m<sup>2</sup> was determined at the end of the growing season. The study showed that, regardless of years of cultivation, the type of soil substrate and fertilizer, the average number of shoots for the mixtures was about 32% lower than for monoculture lawns. The presence of the hydrogel in the soil substrate regulated soil moisture, and therefore in the mixture lawns the values of the tested features were significantly higher in the treatments with hydrogel. Fertilization with Trawovit, regardless of the type of soil substrate (H, BH), does not lead to a statistically significant difference in the number of shoots between the studied mixtures. However, in the treatments fertilized with Sierrablen, the presence of the hydrogel in the soil substrate caused a significant increase in the traits examined for the mixtures containing, respectively, 20 and 80% of red fescue in their composition. The addition of Aqua-Gel P4 to the soil substrate, when the turf lawns were fertilized with Trawovit, resulted in a significant increase in the number of shoots for the cultivars Adio, Libano and Corail.
Highlights
More and more importance has given to red fescue as an important component of lawns (Martyniak, 2006), used both to establish decorative lawns and sports lawns (Rutkowska and Hempel, 1996) as well as to obtain compactness of soil surface on scarps, slopes and in derelict land (Kitczak and C z y ż, 2009)
In the lawns with the red fescue cultivars the number of shoots depended significantly on the hydrogel used in the soil substrate
This study showed that the number of shoots of the tested cultivars depended on the interaction hydrogel x fertilizer x red fescue cultivar (Fig. 1), what allowed us to find that the addition of Aqua Gel -P4 to the soil and fertilization with Trawovit caused a significant increase in the number of shoots in the cultivars Adio, Libano and Corail in relation to the subsoil without hydrogel
Summary
More and more importance has given to red fescue as an important component of lawns (Martyniak , 2006), used both to establish decorative lawns and sports lawns (Rutkowska and Hempel , 1996) as well as to obtain compactness of soil surface on scarps, slopes and in derelict land (Kitczak and C z y ż , 2009). Domański (2002) argues that the most important criterion in assessing suitability of species and varieties of lawn grasses is the coverage of the ground by shoots He believes that in the years of complete cultivation the degree of coverage is subject to variation and is dependent on the season and on weather conditions. According to Leciejewski (2008), the hydrogel addition significantly affected the increase of soil moisture and slowed the loss of water at all depths of the studied soil profile. These observations are confirmed by the results presented in another paper (Martyn and Onuch - Amborska , 1998) which show that the drying rate of greenhouse substrates depends on the proportion of the sorbent. The aim of this work was to determine the effect of hydrogel placed in the subsoil and of the type of fertilization on the number of shoots per unit area of lawns planted using monocultures and mixtures with varying proportions of red fescue
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