New Mexico State University
IN-24: Innovation A

Drs. Bernd Leinauer, Elena Sevostianova, and Matteo Serena
Departments of Plant & Environmental Sciences and Extension Plant Sciences, NMSU

For the past five years, The Club at Las Campanas, a luxury golf community in Santa Fe, has been working on implementing water conservation strategies for its two 18‐hole courses, designed by golf pro Jack Nicklaus.  Recently, club management turned to New Mexico State University’s Cooperative Extension Service turf specialist Bernd Leinauer in Las Cruces for suggestions on how to resolve a lingering issue.

“In addition to using effluent water, we have reduced the amount of turf on the courses by a third, redesigned and updated the irrigation system and started using wetting agents to help conserve water,” said Tom Egelhoff, director of agronomy at Las Campanas. “However, we are still battling wasting water on the tee boxes.”

Subsurface drip irrigation can save water from 20 to 90 percent of what is used by sprinkler systems. Because of the data that will be gathered from this project, USGA awarded NMSU a grant to aid the research. NMSU hopes to get meaningful results from this field test and to be able to document significant water savings, which then can also be implemented on other golf courses across the world.

While the Las Campanas project is ongoing the group has demonstrated successfully the use of saline water for deficit irrigation on test plots at the NMSU campus. subsuface irrigation has been used in agriculture but it hasn't been used in the turfgrass industry. Research results will be forthcoming on the long term effects of this method on larger plots such as the golf course.

http://aces.nmsu.edu/programs/turf/dr-bernd-leinauers-resea.html

Alvarez,G., E. Sevostianova, M. Serena, R. Sallenave, B. Leinauer (2016). Sufactant and polymer-coated sand effects on deficit irrigated bermudagrass turf. Agronomy, Soils and Environmental Quality, 197(6), 2245-2255. doi:10.2134/agronj2016.06.0329

Serena, M., B. Leinauer, M. Schiavon, B. Maier, R. Sallenave. (2015). Establishment and rooting response of bermudagrass propagated with saline water and subsurface irrigation. Crop Science, 54, 827-836. doi: 10.2135/cropsci2013.07.0512

Schiavon M., B. Leinauer, M. Serena, B. Maier, and R. Sallenave (2015). Plant growth regulator and soil surfactants' effects on saline and deficit irrigated warm-season grasses: I. Turf quality and soil moisture. Crop Science, 54, 2815-2826. doi: 10.2135/cropsci2013.10.0707

Sevostianova, E. and B. Leinauer (2014). Subsurface-applied tailored water: combining nutrient benefits with efficient turfgrass irrigation. Crop Science, 54, 1926-1938. doi: 10.2135/cropsci2014.01.0014

Schiavon M., B. Leinauer, M. Serema, R. Sallenave, B. Maier (2015). Establishing tall fescue and Kentucky bluegrass using subsurface irrigation and saline water. Agronomy, Soils and Environmental Quality, 105, 183-190. doi:10.2134/agronj2012.0187