ABSTRACT
Irrigation water constituents are part of the overall fertility program on a turfgrass or landscape site. When irrigation quality is of normal drinking water quality and is consistent, this is often overlooked because soil fertility and plant nutrition is affected primarily by what is applied by fertilization, liming, and any nutrients contained in management products applied to the turfgrass. Changes in fertility status are rather slow and predictable. However, certain irrigation water quality situations complicate nutritional programs either because of excessive additions of one or more nutrients or elements, imbalances between nutrients or elements, or lack of nutrient or elements (Alam, 1999). The most common situations include the following:
Saline irrigation water sources-see Chapter 6• Reclaimed water-see Chapter 8• Ultrapure irrigation water-see Chapter 5• Resources with unusual levels or balances of chemical constituents, such as • higher than normal metals, B, or S
In arid regions, it is common for reclaimed water to become more concentrated in salts over time, so reclaimed water issues and salinity issues become combined. In previous chapters, various issues related to each of these situations were presented, but in this chapter, the focus is on how soil fertility and turfgrass and landscape plant nutrition programs are affected. Among these four general situations, the most challenging is saline irrigation water.
