School of Plant Biology

This field-based project aims to maximise water-use efficiency for warm season turfgrasses grown under Australian conditions.

Throughout Australia, turfgrass producers and managers are under increasing pressure to restrict water use on turfgrass.

This project will:

1. investigate the development of water repellency under a sand-based turfgrass system
2. evaluate the suitability of laboratory-based tests for screening wetting agents
3. determine if timing and formulation affects wetting-agent efficiency
4. assess if turfgrass renovation techniques minimise soil-water repellency in sand-based turfgrass systems.
   

Soil-water repellency decreases water-use efficiency by causing irrigation water to unevenly infiltrate the soil surface, bypassing a proportion of the turfgrass roots, causing localised areas of turfgrass death.