The application of folic acid and biochar on drought stress in sport turfgrass

Use of biochare and folic acid in a lawns bed can be used as a method for reducing water consumption and also reducing the cost of maintaining green space. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of folic acid and biochare composition on sport lawns under drought stress conditions. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of folic acid and biochare composition on sport lawns under drought stress conditions.

For this purpose, two substances of folic acid (0, 250 and 500 mg L-1) and biochar (0, 20 and 40 g kg-1) after water stress were used at two levels of 100 (full irrigation) and 50 (drought) field capacity percentages. The traits of perspective quality (density, color, texture and coverage), chlorophyll, prolin and N, P, Ca and P elements were measured after the drought stress application. This research was carried out as factorial in a completely randomized design at department of Horticultural Science and Engineering of Arak University in 2018.

The application of biochar at 20 g kg-1 concentrations increased the cover surface in sport turfgrass. It was also determined that drought stress reduced the qualitative characteristics of color, density, texture and coverage, but increased nitrogen levels in the sports turfgrass. In this research, the reduced amount of potassium of leaf tissues by biochar application under drought stress was observed. Although, the increasing of potassium content was observed by using of folic acid treatment under drought stress. Biochar alone at a concentration of 20 g kg-1 increased the amount of grass cover compared to the control. However, the use of biochar in drought stress conditions did not have a positive effect on the studied traits and it even caused a 50% decrease in the amount of potassium under drought stress. In this test, drought stress reduced the characteristics of sports turfgrass, including color, density, texture, and coverage. The use of folic acid under drought stress conditions caused an increase in nitrogen and potassium levels in the studied turfgrass species. However, without the application of folic acid in combination with a concentration of 40 g kg-1 of biochar caused an increase in the amount of calcium compared to the control. When biochar and folic acid were used simultaneously under drought stress conditions, the amount of phosphorus increased compared to the control. Although biochar had a positive effect on the quality of the sports grass coverage, it did not have much effect on increasing the absorption of elements under drought stress. Therefore, the amount of 20 grams of biochar per kilogram of soil is recommended. However, folic acid had positive effect on the quality of the sports grass coverage and increasing the absorption of nutrients under drought stress. Therefore, the concentration of 250 mgL-1 of folic acid is the optimal and effective concentration that is suggested in this research. In general, folic acid is a natural tampon and a suitable chelator with high ion exchange capacity, which increases the absorption of mineral elements in plants and also increases the quality and quantity.