Author(s):

Neelam Patel and TBS Rajput

Abstract: Drip irrigation is a means of increasing the efficiency of irrigation water use and reducing leaching of nutrients from the root zone. Drip irrigation is used more often for orchard crops than for field crops; primarily because the spacing between drippers and laterals is large consequently system cost per hectare is less. Soil texture is of primary importance in the design of drip irrigation and directly affects the number and placement of drippers. Hydraulics of water movement is governed by soil physical properties besides dripper discharges and operation duration of the system. Study was conducted from 1999-00 to 2005-06 to determine the arrangement of drippers in fruit plant, water requirement estimation and to study the effect of different levels of irrigation on the yield of guava. Three different irrigation levels of 60, 80 and 100% of the crop evapotranspiration (i.e. 0.6V, 0.8V and 1.0V) were applied to the crop. It was observed in sandy loam soil the drippers of higher discharges i.e. 4 and 8 LPH should be selected to wet more soil surface in a less operation time. One dripper of 4 LPH discharge was found sufficient to meet the water requirement of crop and to wet the effective roots of plant of one and two-year-old plants of guava while during 3^rd and 4^th year, two drippers should be placed 30 and 45 cm on either side of the lateral. From 4^th year onwards, drippers of 8 LPH discharges should be placed in a loop at the vertices of equilateral triangle at a distance of 60, 75 and 90 cm during 4^th, 5^th and 6^th year, respectively. Highest yield was obtained in treatment 1.0V and lowest in 0.6V. The yield response of guava in 1.0V (av. 16.8 t ha^-1) was not significantly more than 0.8V (av. 14.8 t ha^-1) during all the four years.

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