Shelf-life and transplant success of sodded and sprigged turfgrasses are negatively affected by harvest and post-harvest handling/storage conditions. Research was conducted to evaluate effects of several commercially available fungicides, a bio-nutritional plant extract, and a commonly used plant growth regulator on sod shelf-life and transplant success. Field studies were conducted in 2018 and 2019 on 'Latitude 36' hybrid bermudagrass [Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers. × C. transvaalensis Burtt Davy]. Treatments included: the experimental bio-nutritional plant extract ACA-3434; the fungicides fluxapyroxad + pyraclostrobin, fluopyram + trifloxystrobin, and azoxystrobin; and the plant growth regulator trinexapac-ethyl. Sod was harvested, stacked to a height of 12 layers, and stored for 72 h; treated and untreated sod were stored at ambient field temperature (28 • C average). To evaluate storage refrigeration on sod establishment, an additional untreated check was stored at 4 • C refrigeration. Sod was installed on an adjacent prepared native soil, and the treatment effects on bermudagrass transplanting were measured visually, by spectral reflectance, and by root analysis. Research failed to simulate heating inside stored sod masses, and treatments failed to affect internal storage temperatures. Nevertheless, refrigeration and, in some cases, fluxapyroxad + pyraclostrobin application, increased plant health characteristics of transplanted sod. None of the treatments affected recovery of areas from which sod was harvested. Albeit often unrealistic, refrigeration of harvested sod may be the best practice to extend sod shelf-life. When applied prior to harvest, fluxapyroxad + pyraclostrobin fungicides provided slight improvements in post-installation sod health; however, little is known about the mechanism by which this occurs. Abbreviations: CI-RE, chlorophyll index-red edge; DAI, days after installation; NDVI, normalized difference vegetative index; QoI, quinone outside inhibiting; RVI, simple ratio vegetative index; SDHI, succinate dehydrogenase inhibiting. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Prolonged postharvest storage of vegetatively propagated turfgrass (either sod, sprigs, or plugs) can contribute to reduced transplant success. Inside a stored sod mass, such as a pallet of stacked sod or a mass of sprigs or plugs, there is limited exposure to light and atmospheric gasses. In these conditions, turfgrasses increase respiration by metabolizing stored carbohydrates (Darrah & Powell, 1977). Additionally, increased activity of anaerobic microorganisms may lead to internal heating (Pahlow et al., 2003). Thus, refrigeration is an increasingly common technique for prolonging the lifespan of vegetatively propagated sod and sprigs (Bowman &, Burger, 2007;Brede, 2000) and has been linked to extended sod shelf-life (Minaev et al., 2020).In unpublished research, Fluxapyroxad + pyraclostrobin fungicide (Lexicon Intrinsic, BASF Corporation) has been linked to enhanced growth of newly sprigged ultra-dwarf bermudagrass [Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers. × C. transvaalensis Burtt Davy] greens (M. Grant, personal communication, 2017; K. M. Kalmowitz, personal communication, 2018;Lewis, 2017), and more recently, increased plant health characteristics (e.g., normalized difference vegetative index, chlorophyll red-edge index, and root dry mass) of transplanted bermudagrass sod (Minaev et al., 2020). Abbreviations: WAI, weeks after installationThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.
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