Evaluation of soil surfactant applications to turfgrass utilizing a transect method for monitoring soil moisture

Abstract Soil surfactants represent an important water conservation strategy for intensively managed turfgrasses on golf courses and sports pitches. Field research evaluating soil surfactants on turfgrass rely on measuring soil volumetric water content (%VWC) repeatedly over time. Field ecology research often involves sampling in a transect and utilizing the data to calculate the coefficient of variation (%CV) to provide further insight into data uniformity. Therefore, a field study was conducted on a mostly creeping bentgrass ( Agrostis stoloniferous L.) practice putting green in the Mid‐Atlantic US region to evaluate sampling the VWC along a transect. Two soil surfactants (“A” and “B”) were repeatedly applied in a program from April through October 2023, and a non‐treated control was also included. The VWC data were collected every 14 days in a transect as 10 measurements per plot, and visual turfgrass quality also were evaluated. Plots treated with soil surfactant A exhibited consistently higher VWC, more uniform and consistent VWC over time, and higher visual turfgrass quality versus plots treated with soil surfactant B or non‐treated plots. Overall, monitoring rootzone VWC as 10 equidistant measurements along a transect facilitates improved data analyses and is useful for calculating the CV for further insights on soil moisture uniformity and consistency. Therefore, this ecological transect method could be a useful approach to measuring and monitoring soil or rootzone volumetric water content in turfgrass research.