Selection of Axonopus and Paspalum accessions based on vegetative propagules tolerance to low temperature storage

In Brazil, generally turfgrasses are established by vegetative propagules such as plugs or pieces of stolons or rhizomes with leaves.
Therefore, the vegetative propagules capacity of storage and transport to introduce a new material should be known, as it will impact on the establishment of the turfgrass.
The objective of this work was to evaluate the tolerance to low temperature storage of vegetative propagules of Axonopus parodii, Paspalum lepton and P. notatum for turfgrass establishment.
The propagules were stored in a cold chamber at 6.5°C and 85% RH, according to the treatments: zero storage days (0 SD) which served as the control; 2 SD; 4 SD; 6 SD; 8 SD; and 10 SD. The following characteristics were evaluated: fresh mass before storage; fresh mass after storage; loss of fresh mass.
After the storage the vegetative propagules were planted and, after 40 days they were evaluated in terms of: survival rate (%); soil coverage rate obtained through image analysis (%); number of tillers produced; and total dry mass.
Despite the loss of fresh mass under storage at 6.5°C for 10 days, the A. parodii and Paspalum accessions were tolerant to low storage temperature in which their vegetative propagules were preserved, maintaining high survival rate, soil coverage and tiller emission.

XXX International Horticultural Congress IHC2018: VII Conference on Landscape and Urban Horticulture, IV Conference on Turfgrass Management and Science for Sports Fields and II Symposium on Mechanization, Precision Horticulture, and Robotics

A.G. dos Santos, S.Á.C. Gomes da Silva, S.S.L. Silva, F.H.D. de Souza, A.C.R. Castro, V. Loges

lawn, landscaping, vegetative propagation, tiller

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2020.1279.25