Effects of different soil moistures on emergence and root of Kentucky bluegrass

It is important to understand the turfgrass growth characteristics under different soil water contents for developing a sustainable strategy for turf management．The objective of this study is to investigate the growth characteristics at seedling stage of Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis cv．Merit) under a range of soil water contents．The growth chamber experiment consisted of five soil water content treatments (70%，60%，50%，40% and 30% of filed water content)．The seedling emergence rate had significant positive relationship with soil water content and it increased with the increasing of soil water content. The trend of the length and weight of fresh seeds were FWC60＞FWC70＞FWC50＞FW40C＞FWC30， and the root length and fresh weight，total surface areas of roots，average root diameter, total length of roots and number of tips were FWC60＞FWC50＞FWC70＞FW40C＞FWC30．The results indicated that FWC70 and FWC30 treatments were unfavorable to sustainable development of turfgrass．FWC 50 to 60 could be used as an ideal soil water level for Kentucky bluegrass growth．