Irrigation depths applied resulted in significant water savings with the smartphone app and ET controller treatments (Table 7);irrigation water savings ranged from 42% to 57% compared to the time based schedule. Others have reported water savings using ET controllers (Devitt et al., 2008; McCready et al., 2009; Davis and Dukes, 2014). Dobbs et al. (2014) conducted a field study at the same location with bahiagrass and reported a 70% water savings using an ET controller with a similar time-based rate.
The variation between water savings reported by Dobbs et al. (2014) and that measured in this study are likely due to differences in weather conditions, turf type, and ET controller used. Thus, irrigation scheduling with an ET controller will result in different savings depending on the application, technology used, and weather conditions.