Soil Moisture Status in an Irrigated Pecan Field
Publication: Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 139, Issue 1
Abstract
In this paper, the authors have modified a traditional transpiration formula using a soil-gas stress response function of the soil water content to appropriately depict the leaf water head. This allowed identification of the soil waterlogging (gas deficit) stress status. The authors then analyzed the status of soil moisture in an irrigated pecan field in El Paso, Texas, using a drainage equation and a modified transpiration formula. In the formula, four soil moisture statuses were identified: waterlogging stress (gas deficit), favorable water uptake, tolerable moisture deficit, and intolerable moisture deficit. Among these, the water uptake favorable and tolerable moisture deficit statuses are the two favorable for healthy pecan growth and good production. Waterlogging (gas deficit) and intolerable moisture deficit statuses are detrimental for pecan growth. The results also showed that soil moisture status is significantly different during the four growing stages of irrigated pecans: budbreak, early shooting-leafing, primary shooting-leafing-blooming, and fruiting. The results provide guidelines for precision irrigation for achieving water conservation and improved production of pecans and other similar crops.
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Acknowledgments
This paper is based upon work supported in part by the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture under Agreement No. 2010-34461-20677 and Texas AgriLife Research, Texas A&M University System. We are in debt to Mr. Tony Rancich, the owner of the pecan farm, and Ms. Nicole Kyger and Mr. Frank Reyes, who provided great assistance for data collection and compilation of moisture, soil and irrigation data. We also thank Ricardo Marmolejo and Zhuming Ye for Eddy Covariance system maintenance and data collection in the field and Bhanuprakash Nagaraju for ET calculation from the ET tower data. We appreciate Dr. Donald C. Helm, Ms. Pat Zimmerman, and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments for improving the manuscript.
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Published In
Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 139 • Issue 1 • January 2013
Pages: 26 - 40
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Aug 24, 2011
Accepted: May 1, 2012
Published online: May 3, 2012
Published in print: Jan 1, 2013
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