Monitoring turf water status with infrared thermometry
Date
2010
Authors
Hattendorf, Mary J., author
Crookston, Mark A., author
U.S. Committee on Irrigation and Drainage, publisher
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Abstract
New advances in the Crop Water Stress Index (CWSI) technique pioneered by Idso et al. (1981), Jackson et al (1981), and others have reduced the data requirements and development time for detection of water stress. These new methods, sometimes called the empirical CWSI (eCWSI, O'Shaughnessy and Evett, 2009) were adapted for the Northern Water turf studies program. The adapted methods compare turf surface temperature measured with an infrared thermometer to surface temperature of a spray-pump wetted turf surface. The eCWSI of a plot of spray irrigated tall fescue was compared to the eCWSI of an adjacent plot of subsurface drip irrigated (SDI) tall fescue. Attempts were made to keep the eCWSI of each plot close in value with irrigations applied as needed to the more stressed plot. Although weather conditions in 2009 often precluded collecting data as frequently as needed, results indicated that the SDI plot was often more stressed than the spray plot. The SDI plot had less applied water than the spray-irrigated plot and soil moisture in the SDI plot also was consistently lower than in the spray plot. These results suggest that maintaining eCWSI at equal levels would increase the applied irrigation to the SDI plot. Information in 2010 will help define whether true applied irrigation differences exist between the SDI and spray-irrigated plots. The new eCWSI approach for turf is robust, simple, and has potential for technology transfer to turf managers with inexpensive, off-the-shelf instrumentation and equipment.
Description
Presented at Meeting irrigation demands in a water-challenged environment: SCADA and technology: tools to improve production: a USCID water management conference held on September 28 - October 1, 2010 in Fort Collins, Colorado.