Zoysiagrass, bermudagrass, and irrigation requirements

Zoysia Bermuda irrigation water research
Micah Woods
Last updated on 2026-05-20 1 min read

One of the items in my blog posts TODO file has the heading Zoysia and water use Wherley et al.

“Didn’t I already write about that one?” I thought to myself as I was checking the list. I searched for “Wherley” on the ATC site, and nothing turned up about zoysia and water. Only about DLI.

I checked out the recently updated site search to check if I had written about this article previously.
I checked out the recently updated site search to check if I had written about this article previously.

So here’s that article about zoysia and water use.

Wherley, B., Heitholt, J., Chandra, A. and Skulkaew, P. (2014), Supplemental Irrigation Requirements of Zoysiagrass and Bermudagrass Cultivars. Crop Science, 54: 1823-1831. https://doi.org/10.2135/cropsci2013.11.0753

You can read the abstract to get the main results.

  • sports-type bermudagrass cultivars (Celebration, Premier, Tifsport, and Tifway) had the lowest irrigation requirement to maintain acceptable visual quality

  • manilagrass (Zoysia matrella) cultivars (Cavalier, Emerald, Zeon, and Zorro) required the most irrigation to maintain acceptable visual quality

  • manilagrass “root development was limited relative to bermudagrass and Z. japonica cultivars”

  • manilagrass required about twice as much irrigation as did bermudagrass to maintain acceptable turfgrass quality

See the related posts below for more about irrigation water requirements, zoysiagrass, and bermudagrass.

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