The changes of the assimilation pigments content of turf Festuca spp. leaves after application of different nutrition forms

Received: 2018-01-29 | Accepted: 2018-02-22 | Available online: 2018-03-31 https://doi.org/10.15414/afz.2018.21.01.06-10 The aim of this experiment was to compare find out of the changes of assimilation pigments content of turf Festuca spp. leaves after application of different nutrition forms under non–irrigated conditions. In period April 2012 – May 2015 (without June 2014 and February 2015) experiment was carried out in warm and dry conditions in area of Nitra (Slovak Republic). Concentration of assimilation pigments (chlorophyll a , chlorophyll b and total carotenoids) was determined spectrophotometrically. The experiment was included 10 treatments: 1. Without fertilization, 2. Saltpetre with dolomite, superphosphate, potassium salt, 3. Turf fertilizer NPK 15-3-8 (+ 3MgO + 0.8 Fe + 18S), 4. Slow release fertilizer NPK 14-5-14 (+ 4CaO + 4MgO + 7S), 5. Controlled release fertilizer NPK (S) 13-9-18 (+ 6S), 6. Organic fertilizer NPK 5-1-1, 7. Organic fertilizer NPK 3-2-1 and 3 mycorrhizal preparations. The use of inorganic and organic fertilizers resulted in an increase chlorophyll a , b content and total chlorophyll in leaves Festuca spp. More pronounced increase in chlorophyll content was found by the application of the Turf fertilizer. Application of this fertilizer has a statistically significant effect on content of chlorophyll a + b than in the other evaluated treatments without turfs fertilized by Controlled release fertilizer and Organic fertilizer NPK 5-1-1.  A statistically significant increase in the total carotenoids concentration was observed after the use of Saltpetre with dolomite, superphosphate, potassium salt and Turf fertilizer as compared to the non-fertilized control. Keywords: turf, Festuca spp., fertilizers application, chlorophyll, total carotenoids  References ALDOUS, D. E. (2011) International Turf Management. New York: REaPP. ALTISSIMO, A. and PESERICO, L. 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Introduction
Colour, as one of the qualitative indicators of turfs, is closely related to the concentration of green leaf dye-chlorophyll.The most important pigments are chlorophyll a (blue-green) and chlorophyll b (yellowgreen).Carotenoids, together with chlorophyll, are part of photosynthetic organisms and form a reciprocal process (Beard, 1973;Xu et al., 1995;Kovár and Gregorová, 2009).Biosynthesis of assimilation pigments in plants is affected by variety of external and internal factors (Masarovičová et al., 2000).The color of leaves, as the main component for assessing the aesthetic quality of turfs, is often evaluated in field experiments (Karcher and Richardson, 2003;Gregorová and Kovár, 2010;Hric et al., 2016a).
Nitrogen (N) is a component of chlorophyll.N is involved in the conversion of kinetic solar energy into chemical energy.In the absence of nitrogen of plants change their appearance.If the nitrogen content in the leaves of plants is low, then the leaves turn yellow.With a large nitrogen deficiency, the leaf dies (Hrabě et al., 2009;Aldous, 2011).
The aim of this experiment was to compare the changes of the assimilation pigments content of turf Festuca spp.leaves after application of different nutrition forms under non-irrigated conditions.In the contribution compares the effect of fertilization on inorganic, organic and mycorrhizal preparations on the content of chlorophyll a, b and total carotenoids.

Material and methods
In period April 2012 -May 2015 (without June 2014 and February 2015) turf experiment was located in moderate climatic zone of warm and dry area in Nitra (Slovak Republic).In June 2014 and February 2015 samples were not analyzed (decimated turf ).
Experimental plots area was 2.4 m 2 and each treatment was in 3 random replications.Experiment was established in the form of a Latin square.
For the recommended dose of fertilizer the value 18 g m -2 N was taken, which meets the requirements for intensively used turfs (Cagaš et al., 2011).System of fertilizing is presented in Table 1.
LAD contains 27% nitrogen with dolomite.Nitrogen is in the ammonium and nitrate form.Superphosphate is 19% P 2 O 5 and potassium salt is 60% K 2 O.
Turf fertilizer 15-3-8 (+ 3 MgO + 0.8 Fe + 18 S) is the granulated fertilizer intended for use for turfs throughout the year in the form of multiple fertilizer applications (3-5×) during the growing season.Nitrogen is in the ammonium form.SRF NPK 14-5-14 (+ 4 CaO + 4 MgO +7 S) is a complex NPK fertilizer containing urea formaldehyde component as a source of nitrogen enriched with micronutrients.Part of major NPK nutrients is founded in fast-dissolving form.
OF 5-1-1 content is comprising C, H, O, N, P, K, Ca, Mg, S, Fe etc., in the form of organic components of the starch material from the milled cereals (30%), enriched hydrolysate of whey (30%), lignocelluloses raw material from wood processing (30%), by hydrolysis of whey enriched (30%) and in 10% mineral constituent zeolite of sodium aluminium silicate.Philosophy of this fertilizer is unlike mineral fertilizers aimed at improving the carbon balance.
OF 3-2-1 is produced by modern technology from natural materials without the use of chemicals and preservatives.Production procedure at high temperature leads to inactivation of pathogens and weed seeds.This fertilizer is characterized as high-quality organic fertilizer with gradual release of the main nutrients and essential trace elements.Its high biological value is increased due to harmless processing, content balance, easy handling and hygiene applications in practice.Compared with manure it constitutes a modern compensation for of manure.
Mycorrhizal preparation 2 is based on the basis of endomycorrhizal fungi.It contains natural argillaceous media, 6 kinds of mycorrhizal fungi, natural ingredients Total concentration of chl a, chl b and total carotenoids in leaves of used grasses was calculated on mg m -2 leaf area by relationship: where: Results were statistically evaluated by the Analysis of Variance (One-way ANOVA, Method: 95.0 percent LSD) using statistical software STATISTICA 7.1 (Stat Soft. Inc. 2007).

Results and discussion
The average values of chlorophyll a and b are given in Table 2.The content of chlorophyll a in turfgrass leafs was higher (p = 0.000302) on fertilized treatments (467.77-496.69mg m -2 ) compared to non-fertilized control (404.05mg m -2 ) and mycorrhizal preparation 2 (422.99 mg m -2 ).The lowest content of chlorophyll in leaves we measured on control (404.05mg m -2 ).Similar results were obtained by Larimi et al. ( 2014) and Mahmoud et al. (2017).Conversely, the highest content of chlorophyll a (496.69mg m -2 ) in the leaves of grasses was recorded on the treatment fertilized by turf fertilizer.
The highest connect values of chlorophyll a were on turfs fertilized by inorganic fertilizers (475.62-496.69mg m -2 ) and organic fertilizer 1 (492.16mg m -2 ).Treatment fertilized by TF was also characterized by the highest variability in chlorophyll a content (δ = 146.5).
The concentration of chlorophyll b in grass tissues was in the reference period in from 167.85 mg m -2 (control) to 218.67 mg m -2 (TF).Also, with this assimilation pigment, its content on treatment with application TF (218.67 mg.m -2 ) was higher (p = 0.000029) than on control and on turfs with mycorrhizal preparations 1 and 2 (202.92 and 183.17 mg m -2 ).Similar results were obtained by Larimi et al. (2014).The most variability content of chlorophyll b over the whole experiment period was treatment fertilized by turf fertilizer (δ = 59.31).
Total chlorophyll content (chl a + chl b) is presented in Table 3.Values were found in a range from 571.91 mg m -2 (TF) to 757.02 mg m -2 (control).Application of TF resulted in the highest (p = 000006) concentration of the monitored parameter (757.02mg m -2 ) compared to fertilized treatments N + P + K (680.65 mg m -2 ), SRF (675.84 mg m -2 ), OF2 (671.36 mg m -2 ) and mycorrhizal preparations (606.166-675.29 mg m -2 ).Control treatment has lowest total chlorophyll content.The use of the mycorrhizal preparation resulted in an increase in the total chlorophyll content as compared to the control.Equally, Vafadar et al. (2013) in their experiment after application of mycorrhizal fungi found an increase in chlorophyll content compared to control.Kuo (2015) found in his experiment with using SRF and fast release fertilizers 3× higher chlorophyll content than the control.Once again, the highest imbalance in chl a + chl b concentration was represented by TF (δ = 271.72).The most stable connect of chl a + chl b reached treatments with application mycorrhizal preparations (δ = 31.07-30.67).
The concentration of total carotenoids was higher in fertilized treatments by N + P + K (152.34 mg m -2 ) and TF (152.26 mg m -2 ).In previous experiment (Hric et al., 2016a), the effect of use fertilizers on the content of total carotenoids did not notice a positive effect.Statistically significantly highest content of total carotenoids was found on the treatment fertilized with N + P + K and turf fertilizer compared with control and mycorrhizal preparation 2. At the same time, turf fertilized by turf fertilizer was characterized by the highest imbalance of this assimilation pigment (δ = 46.55).Again the most stable content of total carotenoids reached treatments with application mycorrhizal preparations (δ = 30.67-31.41).

Conclusions
On the basis of the results, it can be stated that the use of inorganic and organic fertilizers as well as the mycorrhizal preparation resulted in an increase of the assimilation pigments content of Festuca spp.leaves.The highest values of assimilation pigments were observed on treatments fertilized by inorganic fertilizers (N + P + K, TF, SRF, CRF and OF1).These fertilizers are likely to provide the greenest colour of turf.The highest increase in assimilation pigments occurred after application of TF.At same, this treatment was characterized by the greatest imbalance in assimilation pigment values.In the next period, is planning to continue in the experiment and spread it on other turfgrass species and fertilizers.

Table 1
System of fertilizing of individual treatments (2.4 m 2 )

Table 2
The average values of chlorophyll a and b in leaves , b, c, d -statistically significant differences (Fisher LSD test, = 0.05), δ = standard deviation, n = 6 a

Table 3
The average values of chlorophyll a + b and total carotenoids in leaves a, b, c, d -statistically significant differences (Fisher LSD test, = 0.05), δ = standard deviation, n = 6