The suitability of polyethylene glycol for inducing drought symptoms in zoysiagrass

Abstract Water use is the greatest challenge facing the turfgrass industry. Breeding for drought responses is complicated by variable environmental factors, and it can be difficult to determine if selections are based on drought avoidance or drought tolerance mechanisms. The use of polyethylene glycol (PEG) offers potential for development of an efficient screening method for drought tolerance. A preliminary study was conducted to assess different rates of PEG 6000 equilibrated with known osmotic potentials of sucrose to evaluate the turfgrass quality, leaf wilting/firing, and rooting of FAES1305 zoysiagrass. A second study was subsequently conducted using 23% PEG 6000 to screen genotypes of zoysiagrass for their drought responses. Sucrose was unsuitable due to rapid induction of drought stress symptoms. Over the course of a 10‐day period, the PEG solutions produced observable changes in turfgrass quality and leaf wilting/firing of FAES1305 zoysiagrass compared to its growth without PEG, thus indicating the potential for use of PEG as a screen for drought tolerance in zoysiagrass. Among nine zoysiagrasses evaluated in the second study, SS‐500 (Empire ® ), Zeon, and FZ1252 consistently showed earlier and greater signs of drought stress compared to FAES1319 (Brazos ® ) and Palisades. The use of PEG 6000 at the concentrations studied is useful to screen multiple genotypes of zoysiagrass for drought responses.