Fans and syringing for cooling creeping bentgrass putting ... - GCSAA

Fans and syringing vs. roots353025201510503530252015105035302520151050200020002001■ Fan■ No fan■ Syringe■ No Syringe■ Fan■ No fanTurf quality and colorTu rf qu a l i ty and co l or were sign i f i c a n t ly affected by fan, s yri n geor the com bi n a ti on of fan and syri n ge tre a tm ents on five of s evenra ting date s . Using a 1-9 scale,plots were rated for color and quality,with a color score of 1 assigned to a completely brown plot,anda quality score of 1 assigned to a plot with no living turf.Plots withacceptable color or quality received scores of 5. At three ratings(June and August 2000 and July 2001), the interaction of fans andsyringing was significant, because the combination of fans andsyringing improved turf color beyond that observed in the fanonly,syringe-only or untreated plots.When the fan-only treatment was significant (July and August2001), turf quality was improved when a fan was used. For example,the average turf quality rating on July 17, 2001, was 6.0 forplots with fans and 5.2 for those without. On Aug. 1, 2001, turfquality in plots with fans averaged 6.0, turf quality in plots withoutfans averaged 4.7. Fan or syringing treatments negatively affectedturf color or quality only once, on Aug. 25,2000, when plots receivingonly the syringe treatment had a lower color score than thosenot receiving syringe sprays.Conclusions• Both the fan and syri n ge tre a tm ents coo l ed the soil tem pera tu re( m e a su red at a depth of 1 ⁄2 i n ch) of c reeping ben t grass put ti n ggreens du ring the two ye a rs of this stu dy.• The combined treatment of fans + syringing was most effective.The fan treatment alone lowered soil temperature, but not asmuch as fans and syringing combined.• The cooling effect of the fan treatment often lasted after the fanshad stopped running. This residual effect typically lasted aboutfour hours.• When air temperatures were lower than 90 F, the treatmenteffects were less pronounced.• Reduced soil temperature did not produce a significant increasein creeping bentgrass root length.■AcknowledgmentsThanks to the Tem pest Tech n o l ogy Corp. for loaning the fans and to theAlabama Tu rfgrass Re s e a rch Fo u n d a ti on for su pporting this re s e a rch .353025201510502001■ Syringe■ No SyringeReferences1. DiPaola, J. 1984. Syringing effects on the canopy temperatures of bentgrassgreens. Agronomy Journal 76:951-953.2. Huang, B.,and H. Gao. 2000. Growth and car bohydrate metabolism o f creepingbentgrass cultivars in response to increasing temperatures. Crop Science40:1115-1120.3. Va r ga s , J. M . ,J r. 1 9 9 4 . Ma n a gem ent of tu rfgrass diseases. Lewis Pu bl i s h ers , Boc aRa ton ,F l a .4. Xu,Q., and B. Huang. 2000a. Growth and physiological responses of creepingbentgrass to changes in air and soil temperatures. Crop Science 40:1363-1368.5. Xu,Q.,and B. Huang. 2000b. Effects of differential air and soil temperature oncarbohydrate metabolism in creeping bentgrass. Crop Science 40:1368-1374.Neither fans nor syringing significantly affected root-length density in 2000 or 2001.In 2001, root-length density actually decreased throughout the sampling period.Elizabeth Guertal, Ph.D. (e-mail: eguertal@acesag.auburn.edu), is Alumni AssociateProfessor, and Dave Han, Ph.D., is an assistant professor and Extension specialist,inthe department of agronomy and soils at Auburn University, Auburn, Ala.GCM July 2002