Water-Supplying Power of the Soil Under Different Species of Grass and With Different Rates of Water Application

Abstract

The water-supplying power of the soil has been investigated by a num-,ber of workers during the past 30 years. The soil-point method which is used in this study was described by LIVINGSTON and KOKETSU (3). This method has since been used to study the seasonal variations in the watersupplying power of the soil with reference to rainfall, evaporation rate and the growth condition of lawn grasses by LIVINGSTON and OHGA (4) Only four of the seven plots were used in the study reported here. These included one check and three other plots which received 1.5, 2.0, and 3.0 times the normal, respectively. This "normal" is the average amount of rainfall for the months included in the growing season at Wooster, Ohio, as determined by the Weather Bureau station during the past 40 years. Thus the plot represented by 1.5 N received an amount of water which exceeded that which would normally fall on the plots by 50 per cent., the 2.0 N an excess of 100 per cent., and the 3.0 N exceeded the check by 200 per cent. Since the rainfall was very deficient during the summer of 1930 these relative values did not obtain, as will be shown later.

Effects of Drought, Temperature and Nitrogen on Turf Grasses

“…In contrast, P. trivialis, located on an adjacent plat, has had to be reseeded annually, since it has died out each season within the space of a few weeks after the inieeption of hot, dry weather. In a study of the water-supplying power of soil under different gorasses, WELTON anid WILSON (29) found that fescues apparently absorb less of the available soil moisture than do bluegrass and benits, and WILSON and LIVINGSTON (31) ill a study of the wilting of grasses as related to the water-suipplying power of the soil found the fescues to be more drought-resistant than the other species tested.…”

Survival of Turfgrass Seedlings Subjected to Induced Drouth Stress1

“…and Wilson(7) found 60% more available water under Chewings red fescue than under l(entucky bluegrass. He concluded that the fescue places smaller demands on available moisture and thus enters drouth with greater reserve moisture.…”

Wilting and Withering of Grasses in Greenhouse Cultures as Related to Water-Supplying Power of the Soil

“…The idea already advanced by LIVINGSTON (31), that the water-supplying-power value of about 100 (for the 6-cm. depth) may be regarded as critical for many plants and for ordinary evaporation condi--I't 27 and 29 respectively, but the experimental period was not prolonged sufficiently to bring about complete vegetative death in these two forms.…”