Turfgrass research focuses on irrigation efficiency, drought tolerance.
Researchers in the New Mexico State University College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences are determining methods to improve irrigation efficiency.
NMSU Extension Turfgrass Specialist Bernd Leinauer said subsurface drip irrigation, in particular, is the newest method in turfgrass efficiency.
"Although subsurface drip irrigation has been used in agriculture for decades, it’s just making its way into the turfgrass industry," Leinauer said.
Last summer, Leinauer and his research team led a project to install a subsurface drip irrigation system in several tee boxes at The Club at Las Campanas in Santa Fe.
The project is a collaboration among NMSU, Las Campanas, United States Golf Association and irrigation manufacturers Toro and Rain Bird.
While half of the park will use a traditional pop-up sprinkler watering system, NMSU will oversee the other half of the park, on which a subsurface drip irrigation system has been installed.
For the funding agencies that have supported our research in water conservation, it is particularly important to document that technology not only works in a research setting but can be successfully scaled up to real world situations."
In the next three to five years, NMSU researchers and City of Albuquerque officials should find out if the subsurface drip irrigation system helped conserve water.
We can work closely with each other and design projects together.