Irrigation Requirements for Establishing Tall Fescue Cultivars.

Tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) is one of the more widely used turfgrass species utilized in a lawn, partly due to its ability to be easily established from seed. Previous field studies have observed mature, drought tolerant tall fescue cultivars can maintain acceptable quality superior to other tall fescue cultivars during times of drought stress under various irrigation regimes. It is important that as competition for freshwater resources increase, that turfgrass managers consider conserving water in their turfgrass irrigation practices. Currently It remains unknown the irrigation requirement for establishing tall fescue as well as if drought tolerant cultivars could be established using less water compared to other varieties. Many scientific and university recommendations provide generic instructions for irrigating newly seeded turf, such as "keep the soil moist", and other similarly worded guidelines. Therefore a study was conducted to investigate irrigation requirements for establishing of tall fescue from seed. This study was conducted on a Captina silt loam soil using irrigation treatments ranging from 50% to 125% replacement of reference evapotranspiration(ET_O). At 28 days after seeding, no significant differences in establishment were observed between drought tolerant and drought susceptible cultivars. Turfgrasses were well-established under the 75 and 100% irrigation deficit level, being 30 and 39% greater in green turfgrass coverage, respectively, than irrigating turf at 50% ET_O. Irrigating turfgrass seedlings at 75 or 100% ET_O for the first 28 DAS is a practical way to conserve water while providing acceptable coverage during establishment