Bermudagrass and Seashore Paspalum Establishment from Seed Using Differing Irrigation Methods and Water Qualities

Published in Agron. J. 104:706–714 (2012) Posted online 8 Mar. 2012 doi:10.2134/agronj2011.0390 Copyright © 2012 by the American Society of Agronomy, 5585 Guilford Road, Madison, WI 53711. All rights reserved. No part of this periodical may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. R drought conditions in the southwestern United States have led to restrictions on the amount of potable water allocated for landscape irrigation (City of Albuquerque, NM, 2000). As part of a comprehensive eff ort to conserve potable water for irrigation purposes, several strategies are currently promoted. First, turfgrasses that are adapted to summer temperatures in arid and semiarid climates and that can survive on less water than traditional cool-season turfgrasses should be used. Second, the use of irrigation systems that maximize irrigation effi ciency can help to conserve potable water. Th ird, replacing potable water entirely with water unfi t for human consumption (e.g., saline groundwater or recycled water) can also have a signifi cant impact in reducing potable water use for irrigation. A combination of two or all three measures may have the largest impact on reducing potable water spent on outdoor irrigation. Warm-season or C4 grasses generally require less irrigation water than cool-season or C3 grasses because anatomical and photosynthetic adaptations result in a greater water use effi ciency. Furthermore, in transitional climate zones, areas that allow the growing of both grass types, warm-season grasses have a shorter growing season and subsequently a shorter irrigation period than cool-season grasses which results in less water needed to maintain turf areas. Consequently, the use of warm-season turfgrasses, such as buff alograss [Buchloe dactyloides (Nutt.) Engelm.], bermudagrass [Cynodon dactylon (L.)], or seashore paspalum [Paspalum vaginatum (Sw.)] has become an important water conservation strategy in transitional, arid, or semiarid climate zones. Turf establishment from sprigs or sod has been the preferred method historically, because seeded varieties that exhibited high quality were not available. Th e fi rst turf-type bermudagrass and seashore paspalum cultivars were introduced as sterile hybrids and had to be propagated vegetatively. Th e fi rst seeded turf-type bermudagrasses cultivars were released in 1978 and included NewMex Sahara and Sonesta (Rodgers, 2003). However, results from the National Turfgrass Evaluation Program (NTEP) (Morris, 1993) revealed that these seeded cultivars did not exhibit the quality of vegetative cultivars. A new generation of seeded bermudagrass cultivars, including Princess 77 and Riviera were introduced during the late 1990s and early 2000s and rated equal in turf quality to elite vegetative bermudagrasses in the 1997 NTEP bermudagrass test (Morris, 2002). Th e fi rst improved seeded cultivar of seashore paspalum, called Sea Spray was released in 2005 and patented in 2007 (Fricker et al., 2007). Patton et al. (2009) and Leinauer et al. (unpublished data, 2009, 2010) showed that Sea Spray achieved similar quality to vegetative cultivars. Little information is available concerning when to best establish high quality seeded bermudagrass and seashore paspalum cultivars in transitional arid environments. Findings based on early research suggest that the best time for establishing warm-season grasses is late spring to early summer (Johnson and Th ompson, 1961) or when soil temperatures reach 16°C (Baltensperger and Doxon, 1993). Beard (2002) reported that an optimal temperature for bermudagrass germination ranges from 20 to 35°C. Th ese temperatures are usually reached in ABSTRACT