Wetting agent and cultural practices increase infiltration and reduce runoff losses of irrigation water

Abstract

Wetting agents are mainly used to manage water repellency in soils but they do provide other benefits like increase in water retention and reduction in physiological moisture stress in plants. Experiments were conducted at the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona on a loamy sand soil situated on an 8% slope with an established turfgrass maintained under golf course fairway management conditions. The effect of cultural practices like core aerification followed by sand topdressing and application of a wetting agent in reducing runoff of irrigation water was evaluated. Runoff events after the cultural practices and the wetting agent treatment (Dispatch applied at 877 ml/ha) was repeated four times over a time period when the matric potential ranged from 15-40 kPa. An empirical formula based on Horton's equation was used to predict maximum runtime of sprinklers to prevent runoff from turf on slopes. Total irrigation runoff was calculated based on overspray, surface runoff and percolation or seepage over a specified period of time. When Dispatch was added to the irrigation water vertical movement of water was more pronounced than the control (water alone). The least runoff occurred when the soil had the highest matric potential. Dispatch treatments resulted in 43% and 55% higher total wetting surface area at 30 minutes and 60 minutes respectively compared to the water alone treatment. Cultural practices like core aerification, topdressing with sand and using a wetting agent reduced the volume of surface runoff by increasing the infiltration rate and the time period when visible surface runoff was first observed since the start of the irrigation event.

Surfactant effect on forage yield and water use efficiency for berseem clover and basil in intercropping and limited irrigation treatments

“…In this study the surfactant (provided by Aquatrols Corporation, USA, with active ingredient: 10% alkoxylated polyols, 7% glucoethers, inter ingredient 83% water) was applied at a rate of 1 ppm in irrigation water in corresponding water treatment at all irrigation intervals (Mitra et al, 2006;Karcher and Landrerth, 2003). IWUE was calculated using Eq.…”

Granular wetting agents ameliorate water repellency in turfgrass of contrasting soil organic matter content

“…By contrast, applying a soil wetting agent considered to be ineffective (product 10) had no effect on soil VWC. Soil wetting agents are thought to increase surface soil water contents by increasing soil water infiltration (Kostka and Bially 2005;Mitra et al 2006;Miyamoto 1985), and by also decreasing preferential flow, whereby soil water "bypasses" the unsaturated surface soil and rooting zone (Dekker et al 2001;Ritsema and Dekker 1996;Täumner et al 2005).…”

Wetting agent effects on physical properties of mature green waste compost

“…Surfactants are chemical compounds whose molecular structure is well suited to overcome both the water repellent and poor infiltration characteristics. Wetting agent is a surfactant that is used by substrate industries in order to break the surface tension of water, improve the speed of wetting and retention of water [6][7][8][9]. Currently, wetting agent is commonly mixed in growing media to greatly improve their water absorbing ability.…”