Effect of Biostimulants on the Recovery of Warm- and Cool-Season Turfgrass in Central Chile

This study evaluated the effect of a combined treatment of biostimulants on the recovery of low-maintenance turfgrass grown in central Chile. During the summer of 2025, a trial was conducted in Melipilla (central Chile) in an area planted with turfgrass sods consisting of a mixture of warm- and cool-season grasses under weekly mowing conditions. Three doses of the biostimulant treatment were applied at 15-day intervals, maintaining a controlled irrigation regime based on daily turfgrass evapotranspiration. The turf quality during the study was evaluated using vegetation indices based on RGB digital image analysis (VARI and TGI). During the trial period, only the treated group showed a significant improvement relative to its initial condition in one of the two evaluated indices (VARI). Comparative analyses across evaluation dates revealed significant differences between the treatment and the procedural control, which represented the non-maintained condition and the deterioration targeted by the trial, whereas no significant differences were detected with the irrigated control. These preliminary findings suggest that biostimulant treatments could represent a feasible tool for improving the appearance and recovery of turfgrass recurrently affected during summer conditions in urban areas of central Chile. However, future studies should include repeated damage–recovery events and incorporate multispectral indices, such as NDVI, to strengthen the robustness of the results.