Effect of water table management and irrigation regimes on the physiological responses of potato crop grown on sandy soil

C.H. Mohammud and P.B. Leeds-Harrison

Abstract

Appropriate water table management scenarios for sandy soil have been investigated by an experimental approach. Drainage lysimeters were used in a glasshouse environment to investigate the effects of water table management and irrigation regimes on crop water use, root development, crop growth and yield of potato. Irrigation application methods namely surface, sub-surface and static water table treatments were tested. In surface irrigation method, water was applied at the soil surface until water table was raised to 0.45 m from soil surface, whereas in sub-surface irrigation, water table was raised rapidly from below to 0.45 m from soil surface. Surface irrigation produced crops with 7–14% higher leaf area index (LAI), 10–15% higher shoot dry matter, 6–25% more root mass and 5–24% more fresh tuber yield than sub-surface irrigation, whether from a fluctuating or static water table. However, crop water use was the highest in a surface irrigated treatment.

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