ISHS Acta Horticulturae 278: Symposium on Scheduling of Irrigation for Vegetable Crops under Field Condition
REAL TIME IRRIGATION SCHEDULING WITH AUTOMATED SOIL MATRIC POTENTIAL SENSOR MEASUREMENTS |
| Authors: | C.J. Phene, D.A. Clark |
| Abstract:
Soil matric potential (  m), a measure of the holding strength of the soil matrix for water, is a critical variable in crop yield, runoff, evapotranspiration and irrigation scheduling.
A method for real time in-situ measurement of m has been developed and tested.
Soil matric potential sensors were used to monitor m in field soil in real time and to control drip irrigation systems automatically by initiating irrigation when a preset m threshold was exceeded and terminating irrigation cycles when the time needed to apply 1.2 mm of water had elapsed.
Results indicate that this method was successful in (1) scheduling high frequency subsurface drip irrigation (2) increasing yields with respect of conventional furrow irrigation method and (3) maximizing water use efficiency.
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