So, if an acre of fescue takes ~41,000 gallons of water to replace the amount of moisture lost due to evapotranspiration per week, that's more than the (roughly) 24.5 thousand gallons corn evapotranspirates per week (3,500 gallons per day x 7 days per week).How Much Water?
Turfgrass water use can be estimated using local weather-pan evaporation and crop coefficient information (Kopec, D. M. and C. Throssell. 1995. Irrigation Scheduling Techniques. Golf Course Superintendents ssociation of America Seminar Manual).
Turfgrass ET = crop coefficient x pan evaporation
The crop coefficient, with a value most often less than 1, varies among turfgrasses and geographic locations.
If, for example, the pan evaporation rate is a reported 1.9 inches / week and the tall fescue crop coefficient is an estimated 0.8, the weekly water requirement of a tall fescue turf is 1.9 inches x 0.8 or 1.52 inches. One and one-half inches (41,000 gallons per acre) of irrigation or rainfall are required to replace the amount of water lost through evapotranspiration during the week.
Grass may have a larger surface area per square unit of area occupied, that can transpire. I think only the leaves can transpire so the stalks, tasels, ear, etc. Don't count. Plus corn in a feild can tends to shade it's lower portions. I had irrigation and soils classes along time ago, but I forgot almost all of it.I pulled this from the University of Tennessee's PDF about Irrigation.
So, if an acre of fescue takes ~41,000 gallons of water to replace the amount of moisture lost due to evapotranspiration per week, that's more than the (roughly) 24.5 thousand gallons corn evapotranspirates per week (3,500 gallons per day x 7 days per week).How Much Water?
Turfgrass water use can be estimated using local weather-pan evaporation and crop coefficient information (Kopec, D. M. and C. Throssell. 1995. Irrigation Scheduling Techniques. Golf Course Superintendents ssociation of America Seminar Manual).
Turfgrass ET = crop coefficient x pan evaporation
The crop coefficient, with a value most often less than 1, varies among turfgrasses and geographic locations.
If, for example, the pan evaporation rate is a reported 1.9 inches / week and the tall fescue crop coefficient is an estimated 0.8, the weekly water requirement of a tall fescue turf is 1.9 inches x 0.8 or 1.52 inches. One and one-half inches (41,000 gallons per acre) of irrigation or rainfall are required to replace the amount of water lost through evapotranspiration during the week.
I would not have suspected that. I would have suspected that corn, being taller and having more surface area, would transpirate more.
Ken Pagan’s life changed forever with the extension of his elbow and the flick of his wrist.
Pagan, an avid hockey and baseball fan, etched his name in MLB postseason lore last October — just for all the wrong reasons.
“There’s no thought — you’re in the outfield, there’s a ball hit in your direction … excitement,” Pagan recalled. “Honestly, if I was to break down the blow-by-blow, I’d be speculating myself. There’s no thought process. It was an impulse.