Effects of rewatering on turf quality and physiological recovery of Zoysiagrass

Drought is an important environmental factor limiting growth of turfgrass. Recovery growth of turf after re-watering is very important for maintaining turf quality. Using two turf cultivar with different drought resistance including Zoysia japonica ‘Qingdao’ and Z.matrella as the experiment materials, their turf quality, leaf water potential, content of chlorophyll, CAT activity, leaf relative conductance and the content of MDA during recovery were studied. The results showed that turf quality, leaf water potential, content of chlorophyll, CAT activity increased gradually, however, leaf relative conductance and the content of MDA decreased gradually during recovery. After 15 days of re-watering, both Z.japonica ‘Qingdao’ and Z.matrella did not recover to the same degree with the control plants. Drought resistance cultivar Z.matrella recovered faster compared with drought sensitive cultivar Z. japonica ‘Qingdao’ during recovery as the he former have higher turf quality, leaf water poteatial, content of chlorophyll, CAT activity. Leaf relative conductance and the content of MDA of Z.matrella were lower than that of Z.japonica ‘Qingdao’ during recovery, which indicated drought resistance cultivar Z.matrella had better recovery capability than drought sensitive cultivar Z.japonica ‘Qingdao’.