Performance evaluation of urban turf irrigation smartphone app

A new smartphone turf app was field tested in South Florida.Results showed water savings with the app comparable to evapotranspiration controllers.A water conservation option in the app offers additional seasonal water savings when rainfall exceeds evapotranspiration. Data and technology are available to support a real-time irrigation smartphone app for turf that would result in more efficient irrigation scheduling which is needed to reduce water volumes applied and increase irrigation water conservation. Objectives were to (1) develop a turf irrigation smartphone app for warm season turf that would generate real-time irrigation schedules for users to program automatic timers and (2) evaluate app performance in regards to turf quality and water volumes applied with a field plot study. A smartphone app was developed and tested in a plot study in Homestead, Florida, USA, from December 2013 to November 2014. Study treatments included different irrigation scheduling methods: time-based schedule, smartphone app, and two on-site evapotranspiration (ET) controllers. Results indicated that the app and ET controllers resulted in significantly lower irrigation depths compared to the time-based treatment, ranging in water savings from 42% to 57%. The difference among the app and ET controllers was how rainfall was integrated into the schedule. Use of the seasonal water conservation model in the smartphone app is recommended to compensate for the lack of on-site rainfall measurements in the generated irrigation schedule.