Thomas G. Chastain
An often asked question is whether there is a benefit to application of irrigation in late summer or early fall (mid-August until the end of September) in grass seed crops such as perennial ryegrass and tall fescue in the Willamette Valley. Our research and extension team in seed crops conducted studies over a broad range of years to determine whether irrigation in this period is helpful for these seed crops.
Some of our perennial ryegrass work was done in the very dry years of the early 1990s. Those years were as dry as our recent multi-year drought in western Oregon. What we found was that in two cultivars of perennial ryegrass, there was no effect of 2 inches of irrigation water in August and September on seed yield over a three-year period.
