SAND DRESSING OF GOLF FAIRWAYS AND PRACTICE GROUNDS AS A POSSIBLE METHOD TO REDUCE EARTHWORM CASTING

摘要

Trials were carried out at three sites to examine whether heavy sand dressing could reduce theamount of earthworm casting activity on golf fairways/practice grounds. Factors examinedincluded the effect of sand application rate, grain size and grain shape. The effect of grain sizeand application rate were not consistent. On one golf course, casting was significantly reduced, relative to the untreated control, for two out of three years of monitoring when a medium-fine sand was applied at 16 kg m~(2). However, no effects were evident at a lower application rate (8 kg m~(-2)) or when a medium-coarse sand was used. On a second golf course, however, casting rates were significantly higher when sand dressing was used. On the third site, when a 20 mm layer of sand was included to simulate the build-up of sand top dressing over several years, casting rates were significantly lower on sand top dressed plots on four out of eighteen monitoring dates, but casting was higher on the same plots on six occasions (no significant differences were recorded on the other eight dates).