2nd UF Water Institute Symposium Abstract

   
Submitter's Name Thomas Olmsted
Session Name Poster Session: Optimal Use of Integrated Water Supplies 1
Category Optimal use of integrated water supplies
Poster Number 421
 
Author(s) Thomas Olmsted,  University of Florida
  Michael Dukes,  University of Florida
   
  Investigating Different Irrigation Management Strategies on St. Augustinegrass
   
  These are first year results of a study looking at different irrigation strategies and the amount of water applied and their ability to keep irrigation water within the root zone of a turfgrass to lessen deep percolation past where the roots can extract it. Ten St. Augustinegrass plots have soil moisture measurement sensors installed at 5 different depths from 7.5 cm to 37.5 cm to track the change in volumetric moisture content over time at each depth. Each plot has a different irrigation management strategy that varies the amount of water applied, varies the number of irrigation events during the week, or divides the irrigation runtime into smaller timed segments. For many of the treatments, the irrigation scheduled event is controlled by a soil moisture sensor or a rain sensor. On the soil moisture sensor controlled treatments, the scheduled irrigation event is by-passed if the soil moisture is above a set threshold value. Rain sensors will interrupt an irrigation event if a rain amount greater than the rain sensor setting occurs slightly before or during an irrigation event. These treatments were compared to a timed treatment based on University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences recommendation.