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Turf grasses play a crucial role in enhancing the beauty and usability of landscapes, gardens, parks, and sports facilities due to their functional and aesthetic properties. However, various unfavourable conditions, such as plant disorders and environmental pressures, can compromise their amenity value. Ongoing research aims to identify natural remedies that improve the quality and resilience of these grasses. A study was conducted at the Experimental Station of the Agricultural University of Krakow (50°07′ N, 20°05′ E) to evaluate the practical value of the turf produced by seeding of the 'Super Lawn' grass mixture. The experiment involved applying a spray containing oligogalacturonides at two doses: 1.0 and 2.0 dm3∙ha−1, along with a commercial fungicide. The traits were analysed using a 9-point scale. Plants in variant III (treated with the higher dose of oligogalacturonides) and variant IV (treated with the commercial fungicide) exhibited the highest aesthetic and functional values. The application of oligogalacturonides and a commercial fungicide resulted in a decrease in plant diseases. The treatment area showed a reduction in pink snow mould (Microdochium nivale) and leaf spot incidence compared to the control area. Variant II showed enhanced outcomes with the application of 1.0 dm3∙ha−1 of the preparation. In this area, the plant canopy had greater coverage, and the plants demonstrated increased resistance to pink snow mould and leaf spot compared to the plants in the control area. The use of commercial fungicide was found to be more effective than applying oligogalacturonides. Additionally, the plants that were protected with the fungicide displayed the highest values for the analysed parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aimed to evaluate the visual and functional characteristics of intensively used football turf over 10 years, depending on the different areas of the game. The research was conducted on the football turf of the AZS Environmental Club in Wrocław (N: 51° 7′ 31′′ E:17° 4′ 14′′). High variability of the evaluated parameters was observed regarding seasonality, year of observation, and the area of play. It has been shown that the goal area and penalty box areas have the lowest functional value, which are vital areas of the game from the point of view of gaining an advantage in the game. Also, these places are more susceptible to creating sites without plants (requiring additional overseeding) due to the potential of hollowing and goalkeeper interventions ending with the body landing on the ground. The middle area was characterized by the highest overall aspect, color, and turf density values. In the vast majority of cases, there was a downward trend in the turfs' functional value with the turf's age, which is an essential finding in the context of the use of intensively used, athletic natural grass surfaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The selection of grass mixtures with appropriate visual and functional parameters for sowing football fields is a key element in shaping the sports infrastructure, ensuring the spectacularity of a match and comfort for players. The aim of the research was to investigate the properties of lawn grass mixtures and their suitability for football pitches. The experiment was conducted at the Toya Golf & Country Club (51° 20′ E, 17° 07′ N), Wrocław, Poland, between 2007 and 2009. 12 grass mixtures were selected, mainly based on red fescue, Kentucky bluegrass, and perennial ryegrass. The assessment was carried out using a nine-point scale, according to the Plant Variety Office methodology for crops and turf grass. Six features of sports turf were studied: appearance, density, colour, leaf fineness, overwintering, and susceptibility to disease and they significantly varied, depending on the grass mixture and the year of research. Our study showed that mixtures based on the dominance of meadow grass were characterized by higher values of the general visual aspect, colour and slenderness of the leaf blade and these based on the dominance of perennial ryegrass and co-dominance of perennial ryegrass and meadow grass were the most useful in terms of wintering, resistance to diseases and sodding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In establishing sport turfs, in order to obtain the best visual and functional properties, mixtures composed of many species and cultivars of lawn grasses are used. Varieties resistant to intensive exploitation, ensuring safety of the players and the optimal conditions for bouncing, rolling and leading the ball are used. Previous studies and observations have selected the grasses mixtures with the highest compositional homogeneity, which create swards of high bonitation value. There is a lack of synthetic assessment of the impact of diversified seeds sowing rates and mixtures species composition on the turf quality indicator. The aim of the study is to determine the turf quality indicator (QJM) after sowing lawn mixtures used in establishing football pitches on the natural ground. Research was conducted at the Toya Golf & Country Club facility at the experimental part of golf course in Wisznia Mała. The study included 12 mix of grasses, five ready-commercial grass mixtures Eliza (M1), Universal (M2), Real (M3), Super Sport (M4), Sonia (M5) and seven grass mixtures (M6-M12) composed at the Department of Grassland and Landscape Planning with various percentage share of grasses: Lolium perenne L. verieties Barball, Bardorado; Poa pratensis L. varieties Bariris, Miracle; Festuca rubra L. varieties Barcrown, Barustic; F. arundinacea L. variety Asterix. Two sowing norms: 25 g·m-2 (N1), 35 g·m-2 (N2). Observations and measurements have been conducted in three seasons of the year: spring, summer and autumn. Swards have been assessed in terms of visual and functional aspects, using bonitation method by COBORU. Value of sport swards quality QJM has been assessed in relation to the quality indicators by QM (Laudański et al. 2004) and Q (Jankowski et al. 2012). From among researched mixtures grass, mixture M7 and M8 with domination of Poa pratensis L. and M12 with co-domination of Lolium perenne L. and Poa pratensis L. has given the highest parameters. However, Sonia (M5) mixture with domination of Festuca rubra L. has given least satisfactory results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Preparation of the turf surface of the football field directly affected on quality and spectacular aspects of the game. Appropriate species selection, pratotechnical treatments and pitch exploitation have influence on the high functional and visual turf advantages. This paper is an original research work with data from 10 years, containing sport turf assessment carried out according to the visual and functional methods and the COBORU classification system. Research was conducted from 2002 to 2011 at the Training Centre for ASA of Polish national women's football in Wrocław. The study includes analysis changes in the species composition after 10 years intensive pitch exploitation and the evaluation of turf quality on the difficult parts of pitch in the particular seasons of observation. Research can be the basis for the development of recommendations for the construction and maintenance of sports fields in Poland. Results confirmed the relationship between selections of mixture of the grasses and intensity of use on the visual and functional quality of sport turfgrass. Value of evaluations depending of part of football field and date of observation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of study is evaluation of grass emergence in the mixtures and analysis the influence of species composition and sowing rate on plant population. The experiment was established on spring 2007, on the golf course Toya Golf & Country Club in Wisznia Mała near Wrocław. 12 mixtures of turfgrasses were evaluated (5 mixtures with Festuca rubra L. as the dominant grass, available in the commercial offer and 6 mixtures with dominant grasses Kentucky bluegrass Poa pratensis L. and perennial ryegrass Lolium perenne L., composed at the Institute of Grassland and Green Areas Management, Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences). Two sowing rates were applied: N1 - 25 g·m-2, N2 - 35 g·m-2. Diverse number of emerging plants, depending on the type of grass mixture and sowing rates in 4th and 6th week of observation has been reported. Mostly single plants formed swards sown with mixtures with the dominance of Lolium perenne L. (M6) and (M11). The swards with a high participation of M6 and M11 Lolium perenne L. mixture in their species composition, were characterized by the highest plant population. The lowest number of plants per unit area achieved fescue swards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents a method for precise estimation of evapotranspiration of selected turfgrass species. The evapotranspiration functions, whose domains are only two relatively easy to measure parameters, were developed separately for each of the grass species. Those parameters are the temperature and the volumetric moisture of soil at the depth of 2.5 cm. Evapotranspiration has the character of a modified logistic function with empirical parameters. It assumes the form ETR(θ (2.5 cm), T (2.5 cm)) = A/(1 + B · e (-C · (θ (2.5 cm) · T (2.5 cm)), where: ETR(θ (2.5 cm), T (2.5 cm)) is evapotranspiration [mm · h(-1)], θ (2.5 cm) is volumetric moisture of soil at the depth of 2.5 cm [m(3) · m(-3)], T (2.5 cm) is soil temperature at the depth of 2.5 cm [°C], and A, B, and C are empirical coefficients calculated individually for each of the grass species [mm · h(1)], and [-], [(m(3) · m(-3) · °C)(-1)]. The values of evapotranspiration calculated on the basis of the presented function can be used as input data for the design of systems for the automatic control of irrigation systems ensuring optimum moisture conditions in the active layer of lawn swards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Landfills are the most popular means of waste disposal in Poland. Unfortunately, most of them leak and pollute surface waters with harmful underground leachate. Although there are many methods of purification of landfill leachate, they are generally complex and expensive. One simpler and less expensive method involves the use of turfgrasses and the accumulation of toxic elements from landfill leachate in their biomass. They are also used for their soil-forming, anti-erosive, and decorative properties. In an experiment at the municipal waste landfill in Wroclaw Swojczyce, we determined the accumulation of heavy metals from leachate by five species of sown grass cultivars. The best cultivars with regard to heavy metal accumulation were the Festuca ovina cultivar Noni and Lolium perenne cultivar Inka. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]