Irrigation scheduling and irrigation systems: optimising irrigation efficiency for container ornamental shrubs |
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Authors: | Olga M Grant Michael J Davies Helen Longbottom Christopher J Atkinson |
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Institution: | (1) East Malling Research, New Road, East Malling, Kent, ME19 6BJ, UK |
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Abstract: | Water use and plant growth and quality were compared across different nursery stock beds, different methods of applying irrigation,
and different methods of scheduling irrigation. With overhead irrigation, scheduling of irrigation according to plant demand,
along with an irrigation system designed to maximise irrigation uniformity, resulted in substantial water savings, without
reducing plant quality. This was the case in both wet and dry years. In the dry year, plant quality was particularly good
when grown on a sub-irrigated sand bed; this system also used less water than any of the overhead irrigation systems. Two
different systems were effective in scheduling overhead irrigation, one based on the volumetric moisture in the growing substrate,
and the other based on plant evapotranspiration. The latter was determined with a small sensor with wet and dry artificial
“leaves”, the output of which correlated with that obtained following the Penman–Monteith method based on a full set of meteorological
data. |
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