Growth and establishment of irrigated lawns under fixed management conditions

Abstract Irrigated lawns play an important role in landscaping and sports activities in Brazil and around the world. For maintaining its color and beauty, it is necessary that a considerable amount of water, is applied via irrigation systems. However, when irrigation management is not done precisely, it can cause water waste, increased energy consumption, nutrient leaching, among other problems. The objective of this study was to evaluate the growth and the establishment of different irrigated lawns ( Santo Agostinho and Esmeralda lawns) under simulated conditions of fixed irrigation rate management, using different irrigation strategies (M 1 , M 2 , M 3 , M 4 , M 5 and M 6 ) and different soil root depths (S10, S20, S30 and S40). The experiment lasted over 11 months, and it was possible to analyze the lawns quality during the four seasons of the year, in the city of Piracicaba-SP, Brazil. We evaluated plant height (PH), dry matter yield (DM), leaf water potential (LWP) and irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE). Irrigation management based on a reference plot, with soil moisture level keep almost constant at field capacity (M3) was sufficient to produce optimal levels of DM yield in the remaining irrigated treatments, contrary to the initial hypothesis. The different root depths irrigated (S40, S30, S20, and S10) had no influence on the average height of the lawns during the evaluation period (11 cuts). The LWP of the Santo Agostinho lawn was higher than Esmeralda lawn in all the evaluated cutting periods, however, the IWUE was higher in the Esmeralda lawn compared to Santo Agostinho lawn.