As I have a KBG lawn, I researched this pretty extensively, but not in the last 6-7 years. Things may have changed in that time. At the time, I found very few remotely relevant studies available. What I did find were a variety of "statements" contained in university turf "fact sheets" (but they did not site studies supporting the statements) or anecdotal statements in studies aimed at other issues. It left me with as many questions as answers.

To paraphrase these "statements," followed with my comments in parentheses:

An established KBG plant "mother" will send out a rhizome that becomes part of the root mass or from which another plant "daughter" will/can grow. (My experience is that this does not occur until the second year after initial seed establishment.)

The daughter plant receives nutrients from the mother plant through the rhizome connection. (Is this a one-way or two-way connection?)

Verticuting and aeration can promote spreading by severing the rhizome connecting the mother and daughter allowing the daughter to establish its own daughter plants. (Does this mean that unless the mother/daughter rhizome connection is terminated, the daughter will not produce its own daughters? As anyone who has KBG will tell you, it continues to spread over time, so is there a natural process for terminating the rhizome connection? When does that occur? How many daughters can a mother plant have? How far away from the mother plant can a daughter plant be created?)

FWIW: I have an area where the grade near my house is flat, then transitions to a slope and then quickly into a steep incline/hill. I was able to establish the flat area with my initial seeding 10 years ago, but it took re-seeding and/or overseeding each year to re-establish turf on the slope and the hillside. About 5-6 years ago, the slope was able to retain a decent cover, but the hillside still dies off every summer and requires re-seeding.. Every June, I have a great thick lawn there due to the reseeding. Then the hillside dies off during the summer. The point: I have observed that the turf from the flat area, and now the slope, has been making progress at about 6-10+" each year in working its way up the hill. My conclusion is that the mother/daughter relationship must be enabling the mother to support the daughter until the daughter can establish a root mass sufficient enough for the daughter to survive the summer die off that the yearly new reseeded grass cannot. Then "rinse and repeat."

Sorry that I can't be more help in answering your questions. If you come across anything, please post.

EDIT: I went through my "library" of links under that category and this was the only one still active. Buckeyeturf (Ohio State U.) had a couple, but they are now 404 and although they were a great resource, a visit shows they are now pretty near worthless:(.

See section on aeration

Thank you, very interesting.

Here's what I found this evening while researching the topic (here). The full PDF is $30 but just the summary seems to indicate that under normal circumstances the tillers/rhizomes function more or less independently, however if the the mother plant and all but one of the daughter plants are defoliated, assimilate redistribution begins to take place. The one plant left intact feeds all the others.

This article , though for buffalograss and not KBG, says:

Results indicated that inter-ramet water integration happened when one of the connected ramets was under water stress. Transzeatin riboside content decreased in roots treated with PEG. Abscisic acid content increased in the roots of all treatments compared with the control. Water stress caused a reduction of indole-3-acetic acid content in shoots and roots, especially the ramet stressed. Gibberellic acid content in shoots and roots of all treatments increased compared with the control. Within the control, young ramets were sinks of photosynthate, but translocation toward older ramets was detected using 14CO2 label when the older ramet was under stress.

So I guess the way it works is, they do their own thing under normal conditions but if any of the tillers are under stress for whatever reason, the ramets will transfer water and nutrients. I'm unable to find anything good on herbicide movement across rhizomes.

Another thing I just noticed is the first article placing Poa P between non rhizomatous grasses and Agropyron r(quackgrass). I guess that means quackgrass continuously shares water and nutrients between ramets, thus making it a communist grass :-)

Not to throw shade on your scientific discussion, but us Bermuda lovers (and all golf/sports facilities) very intentionally sever the links between mother plant & daughter via aeration or verticutting. This encourages the daughter to produce her own new stolons to make new daughter plants. The line formations of the stolons start to become more of a spiderweb & the turf density is greatly improved.

Everything you guys are saying about translocation of chemical components is interesting, but it becomes a moot point if you use the current best method, which is to break that bond between plants so they create new ones. Rinse & repeat seasonally, as tractor said. Does this translate to KBG?

I guess if rhizomes ran on the surface like stolons instead of underground ,verticutting would be great for KBG like it is for Bermuda. I don't see how you could verticut deep enough to sever rhizomes. They're not very deep but they're not shallow either. Plug aerating , over many years, could help.

Thanks for the links, j4c11. I want to more than skim them before commenting.

reeljake, I notice no shade.

OK. the link I posted above is NOT the link I intended to post.

This is the one from the "library" that I meant to post.

Not enough. It never is. I always assumed that the mother was capable of supplying nutrients to the daughter(s). That it can be a reciprocal relationship is new. I wonder if there is a maximum distance (or # of daughters) which would be limiting. If so, that would influence the timing for severing the rhizomes so the daughters could send out their own rhizomes/daughters. No?

I think I read that KBG rhizomes are normally in the top inch or less of soil. I understood that that is why my verticutter is adjustable to a depth of 1 1/4".

Just FYI I have sprayed glyphosate along the edge of my yard where it meets up with mulch and is encroaching into the mulch. I haven't noticed any significant die-off of KBG other than along the edge where I sprayed it. I wondered the same thing as j4 but just went ahead and sprayed it. I didn't look closely enough to say if it killed off 1 or 2 plants away from the border, to be exact.