Depending on the type of crop, stage of production, soil and climatic conditions, crop water consumption (ETc) varies from region to region. The water demand of the cultivated plants should be determined accurately and irrigation water should be applied according to plant requirements in order to obtain optimum yield and avoid unnecessary water usage. In this analysis, the growth stage specific crop coefficient (Kc) and pan coefficient (Kp) for greenhouse-grown marigold (Tagetes erecta (L.)) were calculated in field No.C3 of the Central farm at the Agricultural Engineering College and Research Institute, Kumulur, Trichy district. Since a Class A pan occupied a wide area, a reduced evaporative pan size (20 and 60 cm compared to a Class A pan) was used and a pan coefficient of 0.93 and 0.96 respectively was calculated. For the transformation of pan evaporation (Epan) to grass reference evapotranspiration (ETo), a pan coefficient (Kp) was used. The depleted moisture content was taken to estimate the crop coefficient for different growth phases based on the tensiometer readings. The results showed that the marigold crop coefficient (Kc) was 0.37 during the initial stage (Kcin), 0.8 during the mid-stage (Kcmid) and 0.47 (Kcfin) during the final stage. Such findings will be helpful in needing crop water and scheduling irrigation for similar conditions.
Author(s) Details
E.Sujitha
Institute of Agriculture, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Kulmulur, Trichy, India.
K.Shanmugasundaram
Department of Basic Engineering & Applied Sciences, Agriculture Engineering College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Kumulur, Trichy, India.
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