Burak Nazmi CANDOGAN, Senih YAZGAN, Esvet ACIKGOZ, Ugur BILGIL

Growth and quality responses of tall fescue (festuca arundinacea schreb.) to different irrigation levels and nitrogen rates

A 2 -year experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of different irrigation levels and nitrogen rates onvisual turfgrass colour and quality and clipping yield of tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) under sub-humid climatic conditions. The treatments consisted of five levels of irrigation, 25% (I1), 50% (I2), 75% (I3),100% (I4) and 125% ( I5), of the evaporation measured from a Class A pan and two rates of nitrogen, 25 kg Nha -1 (N1) and 5 0 kg N ha -1(N2). The N rates were applied as a monthly rate during growing seasons (May -September). The experimental area was irrigated by a pop-up sprinkler irrigation system. The irrigation wasapplied at 3 -day intervals during May -September for both years . The s easonal crop evapotranspiration (ETc)under the treatments ranged from 315 to 1154 mm in 2007 and from 363 to 1100 mm in 2008. The ETcincreased with increasing the both N rate and irrigation level, and the best seasonal turf quality of tall fescuewas obtained for the I4 and I5 treatments under N2 rate. This study demonstrated that, w hen the level ofirrigation and nitrogen rate were evaluated together , the N2I4 treatment ensured sufficiently dark turf colourand quality. Based on the results of this study, it is concluded that an acceptable turf quality can be sustainedunder the N1I1 treatment in May, N1I2 treatment in June, July and August and N1I4 treatment in September(or N2I2 t reatment in September) according to water conservation. When rainfall amountis high (132.2 mm) inSeptember , the N1I1 treatment may sustain acceptable turf quality for this month.

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