The Effects of Regulated Deficit Irrigation in Growth Response to Büchloe dactyloides (Bowie and Cody) Compared with Festuca arundinacea

Abstract

Now days, turf management has encountered with water deficit, mostly<br><br>due to low precipitation also industrial, agricultural and household demand and<br><br>consumption. So, the objective of this project was to identify drought tolerance<br><br>of warm and cool season turfgrass cultivars to different levels of regulateddeficit<br><br>irrigation. The field experiment was set out in a split-plot based on<br><br>completely randomized experimental design with three replications at the experimental<br><br>farm of the Department of Horticultural Science‚ Agricultural<br><br>College‚ Ferdowsi University of Mashhad‚ Mashhad‚ Iran. Water treatments<br><br>(40‚ 70‚ 100 percentages of regulated deficit irrigation) (RDI) were considered<br><br>as main plot and turf grass types as subplots. Irrigation value was according to<br><br>daily reference of evapotranspiration (ETO). In all measured traits, Bowie and<br><br>Cody genotypes of buffalograss showed better response as compare to fescue<br><br>genotype. There was significant difference in turf quality traits of turfgrass<br><br>(such as color, texture and quality after clipping) dealt with different level of<br><br>drought stress. Cody has shown the lowest quality for color index. Whereas, the<br><br>finer leaves have recorded in Cody and Bowie, but not significantly to each<br><br>other. However tall fescue represented the rough leaves among others. Boffalograss<br><br>cultivars preserved more relative water content (RWC) in contrast to that of<br><br>fescue. Results suggested that buffalograss cultivars likely can cope with severe<br><br>drought stress so as to maintain its morphological quality and also is able to<br><br>justify its physiological traits under severe water stress. The research results<br><br>indicated that buffalograss cultivars need lower levels of irrigation compare to<br><br>tall fescue.