Author(s): SILVA, A. J. P. da; COELHO, E. F.; MIRANDA, J. H. de

Summary: Crop evapotranspiration (ETc) is the basis for calculation plant water needs. Various methods might be used for determining ETc such as the soil water balance that has the following components: water storage variation (h), precipitation (P), irrigation (I), deep percolation (DP), evapotranspiration (ETc) and run off (R). The way these components are measured affects the accuracy of the method. The objective of work was to determine banana evapotranspiration by using soil water balance method with data collected by a TDR equipment at different distances from the banana pseudostem. Soil water content was monitored at various horizontal distances (R) from a banana pseudostem and soil depths(Z) in a 0.20 m x 0.20 m grid of a vertical plane between two pseudostems along plant row. Results showed that evapotranspiration and deep percolation are not uniform around a banana pseudostem and varied according to water and root distribution in the soil profile. The larger values of deep percolation and smaller values of evapotranspiration occured at zones of the soil of smaller percentage of total root length and vice versa

Publication year: 2008

Types of publication: Paper in annals and proceedings

Unit: Embrapa Cassava & Fruits

Keywords: TDR, irrigation management, soil water balance