Nitrogen fertilization of warm-season turfgrasses irrigated with saline water from varying irrigation systems. 1. Quality, spring green-up and fall colour retention

A 3-year study was conducted at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, NM, to investigate the effects of different fertilization treatments on turf performance when water conservation strategies are applied. These strategies include the use of non-potable saline irrigation water and the use of efficient subsurface irrigation systems. Two low water use warm-season grasses, Princess 77 bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon L.) and Sea Spray seashore paspalum (Paspalum vaginatum O. Swartz), were irrigated with either potable [Electrical Conductivity (EC)=0.6dS/m] or saline (EC=3.1dS/m) water from either an overhead or a subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) system. Four different fertilizers, liquid slow release, granular slow release, granular urea and liquid urea, were applied at two rates: 10 and 20gNm(-2)year(-1) for Sea Spray and 20 and 30gNm(-2)year(-1) for Princess 77. Spring green-up, summer quality and fall colour retention were determined using digital image analysis, visual quality ratings and normalized difference vegetation index. Generally, subsurface drip-irrigated grasses were slower to green-up than overhead irrigated ones. Sea Spray irrigated from the SDI system took 18, 28 and 15days longer to reach 80% green cover in 2010, 2011 and 2012, respectively, than their sprinkler-irrigated counterparts. The combination of Princess 77 and overhead irrigation reached 80% green cover 35 (in 2010), 34 (in 2011) and 12 (in 2012) days faster than SDI-irrigated Princess 77. Fertilization rate and type had no effect on summer turfgrass quality of Princess 77 irrigated from a sprinkler system throughout the research period reaching ratings of greater than 7 during all 3years. Similar results were observed for Princess 77 irrigated from a SDI system during 2010 and 2011. Summer quality of sprinkler-irrigated Sea Spray was negatively affected by liquid fertilization. During two of three summers, visual quality of plots fertilized with either liquid slow release or liquid urea was lower than Sea Spray fertilized with granular fertilizer. Further research is needed to investigate the effect of fertilization on bermudagrass and seashore paspalum over a wider nitrogen range including both granular and foliar products.