Turf trials tell which lawns are best for a dry climate
6/5/2000
It's a fact. Even during the hottest of summers, it only takes 10mm of water every second day to keep the lawn healthy provided it's a variety which suits Perth's climate, Water Resources Minister Dr Kim Hames said today.
Dr Hames was announcing the results of a three-year trial of 11 common varieties of turf - the first attempt to scientifically examine the performance of turf in Perth's climate.
"It has been a view widely promoted by the Water Corporation for some time now but until now, there was no scientific evidence to back it up," he said.
"However, extensive trials over the past three years undertaken by the University of Western Australia's Faculty of Agriculture clearly demonstrated that the best performing turf for Perth remained healthy with a 10mm drink every second day."
Dr Hames said the research also backed the widely-held belief that buffalo, couch varieties such as santa anna and other similar warm season turf were best suited to Perth's climate.
"The turf industry and home gardeners have long believed that these types of turf were the best for Perth and these varieties are in fact widely used," he said.
The Water Corporation was the principal sponsor of the research, which involved the planting of 180 plots of 11 common varieties of turf at the university's Shenton Park Research Centre.
The varieties involved in the trial were winter-green, Windsor green, CT-2, Santa Anna, saltene, buffalo, kikuyu, buchloe, zoysia, tall fescue and rye. All varieties were given different watering patterns to establish how they responded.
"There is about 15,000 hectares of lawn in Perth, 7,000ha of which is irrigated with scheme water.
"The trial was keenly followed by the turf industry as well as turf managers such as bowling and golf club green-keepers,"
Dr Hames said.
"The results allow guidelines to be prepared for turf managers and home gardeners in the selection of the most drought tolerant and environmentally friendly turf, and to get the most benefit from the water they use."
Dr Hames said that the principal message in the Water Corporation's 'Reduce Your Use' summer water efficiency campaign this year was that lawns and gardens would remain healthy through watering every second day.
"The community responded extremely positively to the campaign and used 15 million kilolitres of water less than was predicted by the corporation," Dr Hames said.
"Clearly people responded to the message with thousands obviously adjusting their sprinkler systems.
"As a result of all the measures taken to encourage water conservation, we have 17 million kilolitres of water more in our dams now than at the same time last year - this is more than one month's summer water supply.
"This is despite the hottest summer in Perth for 22 years.
"The dams were still low at about 26 per cent of capacity, but at this stage of autumn there have been three years when there has been less water in storage.
"I would remind people that now that autumn is here, they should adjust their sprinklers for every third day, or even better, take the reticulation system off automatic and only water when needed," Dr Hames said.
"The daytime sprinkler ban, which has now been in place since 1994, means people should not use sprinklers between 9am and 6pm.
"There is a $100 fine in place for those who ignore this water management strategy."
The trials were conducted at the Shenton Park Turf Water Use Research Facility at Underwood Avenue.
Media contact: Caroline Lacy 9424 7450
Water Corporation: Phil Kneebone 9420 2420.