Best Management Practices for Maryland Golf Courses

• Rain shut-off devices and rain gauges should be placed in open areas to prevent erroneous readings. • Use multiple soil moisture sensors/meters for accuracy and to reflect soil moisture levels.

Figure 12. On-site weather stations access weather information and ET rates to determine site-specific water needs. Photo credit: Mark Jones.

Irrigation System Scheduling

Irrigation scheduling must take plant water requirements and soil intake capacity into account to prevent excessive water use that could contribute to leaching and runoff. Plant water needs are determined by ET rates, recent rainfall, recent temperature extremes, and soil moisture. ET rates and soil moisture replacement should determine the irrigation schedule. Because electric/mechanical clocks cannot automatically adjust for changing ET rates, frequent adjustment is necessary to compensate for the needs of individual turfgrass areas using these older systems. In low-maintenance areas, such as golf course roughs and, possibly, fairways, waiting until visual symptoms appear before irrigating is an acceptable method for determining irrigation needs. The amount to irrigate is important as well; irrigating too shallowly encourages shallow rooting, increases soil compaction, and favors pest outbreaks while over-irrigating can lead to leaching and runoff. For golf greens and tees, the majority of roots are in the top several inches of soil. For fairways and roughs, use infrequent, deep irrigation to supply sufficient water for plants and to encourage deep rooting.

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