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Title: Comparison of Water Management in Container-Grown Nursery Crops using Leaching Fraction or Weight-Based On Demand Irrigation Control.

Author
item PREHN, A.E. - North Carolina State University
item OWEN, J.S. - Oregon State University
item WARREN, S.L. - Kansas State University
item BILDERBACK, T.E. - North Carolina State University
item Albano, Joseph

Submitted to: Journal of Environmental Horticulture
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/26/2010
Publication Date: 6/1/2010
Citation: Prehn, A., Owen, J., Warren, S., Bilderback, T., Albano, J.P. 2010. Comparison of Water Management in Container-Grown Nursery Crops using Leaching Fraction or Weight-Based On Demand Irrigation Control. Journal of Environmental Horticulture. 28:117-123

Interpretive Summary: Irrigating Conteaster dammeri 'Stogholm' using a gravimetric irrigation technique produced an equivalent plant compared to the contoneaster produced with a 0.2 leaching fraction applied cyclically at 1200, 1500, 1800 hour. Concurrently, the gravimetric technique maintained an average leaching fraction of 0.06. This is an improvement over typical cyclic irrigation regimes and these results cannot be obtained by a grower-monitoring alone without significant labor cost. The gravimetric technique is ideal because it requires no calibration and no special skills to setup or operate. In addition, it directly measures the quantity of water lost since the last irrigation thus requiring no data interpretation.

Technical Abstract: Water management should be the foundation of container nursery production as it is linked directly to both water and nutrient uptake efficiency and ultimately, environmental impact. In this study gravimetric water management technique was used by means of load cell/computer interface to determine irrigation volume and time of application. Contoneaster dammeri 'Stogholm' was grown in 14 liter (#5) containers with 8:1 bark:sand mixture. The treatments were: an industry control that was irrigated cyclically at 1200, 1500, and 1800 hour to maintain a 0.2 leaching fraction (afternoon 0.2 leaching fraction); and a gravimetric treatment that irrigated when container capacity dropped below 94% and returned the container capacity to 98% with percentages lowered over the course of the season, always in a 4% spread, to maintain less than a 0.15 leaching fraction (On Demand). The number of irrigation cycles were similar until the end of the study when On Demand cycled up to seven times a day. Afternoon 0.2 leaching fraction had greater Water Use Efficiency (gram of dry weight produced per milliliter of water retained in the substrate). Time averaged application rate for On Demand was lower that afternoon 0.2 leaching fraction resulting in a 0.06 compared to 0.14 leaching fraction for afternoon 0.2 leaching fraction.