Recuperative potential is, in simple terms, the green’s ability to recover from stress, wear, disturbance or damage. It is the green eco-system’s capacity to bounce back. The higher the recuperative potential, the more confidently the green can cope with maintenance operations, play, environmental stress and general pressure. The lower it is, the more likely it is that even sensible work can push the turf backwards rather than forwards.
Today, we will look at two mechanisms of turfgrass physiology that are active in our grass plants and soil and that follow this tendency towards equilibrium, without which our turf wouldn't be able to grow and thrive.
Nitrogen is essential to turfgrass performance—it drives growth, colour, and density. But too much or too little, applied at the wrong time or in the wrong form, can do more harm than good. Spikes of growth followed by periods of stress are all too common with traditional nitrogen sources, especially on fine turf where consistency is king.
Grasses employ a range of physical, chemical, and indirect defences to protect their roots from insect herbivores. Further research is needed to fully understand these mechanisms and to explore other potential defences, but meantime, we can take some of this knowledge and apply it now to our greenkeeping practices.
Mycorrhizal fungi and turf health go hand in hand. The symbiotic relationships that exist between our turf grass plants and soil fungi are critical to producing a high performance, perennial grass dominated sward. Here we look at the benefits of mycorrhizal relationships in turf and the techniques greenkeepers can employ to encourage them.
