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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Washington, D.C. » National Arboretum » Floral and Nursery Plants Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #307682
Title: Irrigation timing and volume affects growth of container grown maples

Author
item Fare, Donna

Submitted to: Southern Nursery Association Research Conference
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/2/2014
Publication Date: 12/14/2014
Citation: Fare, D.C. 2014. Irrigation timing and volume affects growth of container grown maples. Southern Nursery Association Research Conference. 32:208-214.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Container nursery production requires large inputs of water and nutrients but frequently irrigation inputs exceed plant demand and lack application precision or are not applied at optimal times for plant production. The results from this research can assist producers in developing irrigation management strategies that minimize nutrient effluent as well as produce a quality container grown tree. Overall, plants had more height and trunk growth when irrigated mostly in the afternoon compared to early morning irrigation. Reducing the volume of irrigation with a tri-cyclic irrigation regime did not affect height growth, but reduced the trunk diameter growth. Irrigation emitters had an effect on plant growth and levels of electrical conductivity, nitrate-N, and ortho-P leachate effluent. As a result, modifying cultural practices could be a viable tool for irrigation and nutrient management.