Due to its tolerance of wear and drought, tall fescue often is established as turf on sports fields that will receive limited maintenance. Anderson and Agnew (1994) reported that tall fescue had higher wear tolerance but less soil compaction tolerance than did Kentucky bluegrass and perennial ryegrass. Soil compaction affects N use in tall fescue. In Kansas, compaction reduced N recovery by KY-31 tall fescue by 10 to 31% when compared with noncompacted plots (Sills and Carrow, 1982). Heavily trafficked tall fescue athletic fields with soils prone to compaction are routinely cultivated. Cultivation involves the selective mechanical tilling of sod, resulting in minimal damage to turfgrass while improving water infiltration (Florida Dep. Environ. Protection, 2007; McIver, 1999; Toorish and Kelley, 2007). Methods of selectively cultivating turf include coring (core aerification), deep-tine aerification with solid or hollow steel tines, deep-drill aerification, water injection cultivation, vertical mowing, deep-vertical mowing, spiking, and slicing (Li et al., 2003; Waltz and Guertal, 2006). Core, deep-tine, and deep-drill aerification normally are much more aggressive methods of cultivating turfs than water injection cultivation, vertical mowing, spiking, or slicing. Turfs are perforated and holes are visible at the soil surface following core, deep-tine, and deep-drill aerification. Vertical mowing and deep-vertical mowing create a linear aeration pattern. An accumulation of organic matter in the turfgrass root zone is diluted when turf is topdressed with soil following cultivation (O'Brien and Hartwiger, 2003).

 

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