Irrigation under different soil surface wetted areas and water depths for banana cv. Grand Naine

Abstract

The use of different water depths and soil surface soil surface wetted areas by micro-sprinkler irrigation systems results different wetted soil volumes and evapotranspiration conditions, which may cause changes in fruit production quality and quantity. The objective of this study was to evaluate yield, fruit physical characteristics and leaf area of banana cv. Grand Naine under different irrigation depths and soil surface wetted areas in Northern Minas Gerais State, Brazil. The experiment was conducted in the period 2003 to 2006, involving three production cycles of 'Grand Naine' banana with planting spacing of 3.0 m × 2.7 m irrigated by micro-sprinklers. The experimental design was a randomized block with four replicates in a split-plot arrangement with three soil surface wetted areas in the plot and five irrigation depths as subplots. The irrigation levels were taken as fractions of crop evapotranspiration (ETc): 0.70; 0.85; 1.00; 1.15 and 1.30 ETc, and the soil surface wetted areas (Wa) were: Wa 1 of 10.17 m 2 , with emitter of 20 L h-1 and radius of throw of 1.8 m; Wa 2 of 23.74 m 2 , with emitter of 63.6 L h-1 and radius of throw of 2.7 m and Wa 3 of 28.26 m 2 , with emitter of 60 L h-1 and radius of throw of 3.0 m. Central fruit diameter and mean weight, leaf area and yield of 'Grand Naine' banana were not influenced by irrigation depths. On the other hand, smaller soil surface wetted area causes reduction in central fruit length and weight, leaf area and yield of 'Grand Naine' banana.

Water requirements of banana and papaya under different water table depths and soil types in the Lower Indus Basin of Pakistan

“…This resulted in minimum transpiration of selected suckers in response to the lower leaf area. Similar results were found by Bassoi et al (2004), Abd El‐Kader et al (2006), Ahmed Al‐Khalifa et al (2014) and Coelho et al (2016). They found that the ET of banana in the second year was much higher than that in the first.…”

“…The ET determined for banana and papaya through a high‐efficiency irrigation system cannot be extrapolated for the flood irrigation method, particularly in areas where shallow groundwater tables exist. This is due to (i) variation in soil surface wetted areas under drip, microsprinkler and flood irrigation methods that results in different wetted soil volumes and ET conditions (Coelho et al, 2016); (ii) drip irrigation minimizing the days to harvest compared to flood irrigation; hence, ET varies (Shashidhara et al, 2007); and (iii) shallow WTDs also contributing to meeting the ET of crops through capillary rise (Ashraf et al, 2018; Gao et al, 2017; Kahlown et al, 2000; Kahlown et al, 2005; Nosetto et al, 2009; Soppe & Ayars, 2003).…”