Artificial Dyes

The use of artificial colouring is becoming more and more common in sports surfaces, and is becoming more and more common to solve the problem of the reseeding or lack of colour for various reasons. Thus, there are pigments that are absorbed by the leaf, increasing the leaf temperature and improving the general quality (they usually have ultraviolet light protectors), since in situations of high solar intensity this can cause vital damage. On the other hand, there are paints that can be used on dormant varieties, which have fewer advantages than pigments.

Paints are not absorbed by leaf tissue, however pigments are absorbed through the stomata, Mc Carty et al., 2013.

The base compound of these pigments is phthalocyanine, a blue-green compound with a structure similar to chlorophyll, except that the magnesium in chlorophyll is replaced by copper in phthalocyanine, Quillen Lomax, S 2005.

These pigments, although not biologically active, have similar properties to natural pigments. They can absorb certain wavelengths and reflect them in turn. Another interesting factor is the impact of light intensity, in particular with Poa Annua, which suffers more stress under conditions of high light intensity than e.g. Agrostis spp. It is also recommended that shaded areas should not be tinted, as they already have naturally low light intensity.

The advantages of using pigments over replanting are the reduction of water, fuel, equipment and seed costs, the improvement of the quality of C4 varieties by eliminating competition and the reduction of contamination by Poa Annua.