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© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is a very sensitive crop to water stress and timely irrigation water management improves tuber yield and quality. The objectives of this study were to (1) investigate soil water dynamics under potato crops across their root zone and (2) estimate potato crop evapotranspiration (ETa) under sprinkler irrigation on the sandy loam soil. The field experiment was conducted during the 2018 and 2019 growing seasons at the Navajo Farms within the Navajo Agricultural Products Industry, Farmington, NM. Two irrigation scheduling methods were evaluated as FAO-56 approach evapotranspiration-based scheduling and soil moisture sensing irrigation scheduling. Sentek capacitance soil moisture probe was used across four commercial potato fields in each year after calibration to the soil texture just after installation. Crop Evapotranspiration values estimated by the water balance method and the two-step approach were compared to the satellite-based models used in OpenET. The results showed that the potato’s effective rooting zone is the upper 40 cm soil layer. Potato plants extracted more than 50% of total water from the upper 15 cm of the soil profile and about 85% from the upper 40 cm of the soil profile. Little water amount was extracted from the 40–60 cm soil water. Potato crop seasonal evapotranspiration averaged 580 to 645 mm in 2018 and 2019, respectively. The Two-step approach ETa values of 795.5 and 832.7 mm in 2018 and 2019, respectively, were higher than the soil water balance estimated ETa. The satellite modeled ETa varied with field and years and ranged from 437 to 759 mm and averaged 570.4 mm for the 2016–2020 period. Soil moisture probe-based irrigation scheduling improved irrigation water management and the irrigation water use of potatoes in the semiarid climate.

Details

Title
Soil Water Dynamics, Effective Rooting Zone, and Evapotranspiration of Sprinkler Irrigated Potato in a Sandy Loam Soil
Author
Djaman, Koffi 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Koudahe, Komlan 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Saibou, Aminou 3 ; Darapuneni, Murali 4 ; Higgins, Charles 5 ; Irmak, Suat 6 

 Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, New Mexico State University, Agricultural Science Center at Farmington, P.O. Box 1018, Farmington, NM 87499, USA 
 Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department, Kansas State University, 1016 Seaton Hall, 920 N. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, Manhattan, KS 66506, USA; [email protected] 
 Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture, University of Connecticut, 1376 Storrs Rd, Unit 4067, Storrs, CT 06269, USA; [email protected] 
 Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, New Mexico State University, Agricultural Science Center at Tucumcari, Tucumcari, NM 88401, USA; [email protected] 
 Higgins Farms Inc., 4220 N. Crescent Ave, Farmington, NM 87401, USA; [email protected] 
 Agricultural and Biological Engineering Department, The Pennsylvania State University, 105A Agricultural Engineering Building, Shortlidge Road, University Park, PA 16802, USA; [email protected] 
First page
864
Publication year
2022
Publication date
2022
Publisher
MDPI AG
e-ISSN
20734395
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2652949278
Copyright
© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.