In Mediterranean areas, very scarce rainfalls during the summer season are a limiting factor to the sowing and managing of turfgrasses. This work evaluates the response to different irrigation regimes (50 or 75% of reference evapotranspiration) of <em>Cynodon dactylon</em> (L.) Pers. cv <em>Transcontinental</em>, <em>Paspalum</em> <em>vaginatum</em> Swartz cv <em>Salam</em>, <em>Pennisetum</em> <em>clandestinum</em> (Chiov.) Hochst. cv <em>AZ1</em>, <em>Stenotaphrum</em> <em>secundatum</em> (Walt.) Kuntze cv <em>Palmetto</em> and <em>Zoysia</em> <em>japonica</em> Steud. cv <em>El</em> <em>Toro</em>. Performance of turfgrasses was evaluated in term of turf quality, colour index and ground cover. Only when rainfalls were scarce, water regime restoring the 75% of the evapotranspiration (ET<sub>o</sub>) showed significant effects. Under rainy conditions, the restoration of only the 50% of ET<sub>o</sub> was able to give highly acceptable values. The best performance was observed for <em>Z. japonica</em>, <em>C. dactylon</em> and <em>P. vaginatum</em>, whereas <em>P. clandestinum</em> and <em>S. secundatum</em> showed lower adaptability to water stress.
Comparison of some empirical equations for estimating daily reference evapotranspiration
