Evaluation of Aeration and Topdressing on Cumulative and Basic Infiltration Rates of soil covered by Loliumgrass

Aeration is conducted on the perennial grasses such as lawns to reduce soil compaction and enhances the growth as well as improves soil infiltration. In order to evaluate the effects of aeration and topdressing on water infiltration phenomenon in a perennial lawn a factorial experiment in a completely randomized design was conducted in the city of Isfahan in June 2009. Aeration, as the main experimental factor, consists of three levels, A0 (without aeration), A1 and A2 (with punching 1 cm diameter holes on the surface in a regular grid pattern and dimensions of 5×5 and 10×5 cm, respectively) and mulching, as the second experiment factor, consists of two levels, T0 and T1 (with and without any cover), were used for this purpose. To find the effects of the treatments on infiltration phenomena, infiltration was measured using Double Ring Method at three periodic times, i.e., 10, 70 and 130 days and data were analyzed ultimately using SAS software. The drawn results showed that applying A2T1 treatment, compared with A0T0 treatment as a control, increased cumulative infiltration by 286 percent and improved the final infiltration rate from 0.4 to 1 cm/h. On the other hand, A1T1 and A2T1 treatments application had no significant effect on the infiltration, but the effects of both treatments were significantly different from control, A0T0. On this basis, applying A2T1 treatment compared with A1T1 is technically and economically preferred, because of low Ip index. On overall, aeration improves soil permeability and its effects last by topdressing materials. By the way, aeration without topdressing is recommended for the lawn in flood prone areas.