1. IRRIGATION TECHNIQUES IN TOMATO
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2. INTRODUCTION
Tomato needs very careful irrigation which should be sufficient at right time. The water table plays a major role in meeting the irrigational needs of the crop. It is necessary to maintain even moisture supply over watering would be harmful so also in sufficient irrigation. Half Inch irrigation every forte night can result in maximum penetration of roots which would give good yield.
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3. irrIgation techniques in tomato
Heavy flooding is also harmful. Salinity of irrigation water has detrimental effect on flowering fruit set yield and fruit quality.
Drought during early flowering and fruit stages would result in flower and fruit shedding there by affect the yield.
Similarly during fruit maturity and development also the soil moisture supply should be uniform.
A relatively dry period followed by sudden heavy watering during fruiting can cause cracking of fruits.
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4. Irrigation techniques in tomato
For flood irrigation normally water is allowed along the furrows before are planted along with ball of earth on one side of the ridges.
Life irrigation is given on 3rd day of planting. After establishments of seedlings irrigate the field at weekly interval.
Layout and planting for drip irrigation / fertigation
Apply 25 t/ha as basal dressing before last ploughing
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5. Irrigation techniques in tomato
Apply 2 kg of Azospirillum and 2 kg of phosphor bacteria / ha by mixing with 50 kg of FYM.
Apply 75% of total recommended dose of super phosphate (1172 kg/ha) as basal.
Install the drip irrigation with main, sub main pipes and place lateral tubes at an interval of 1.5m.
Place the drippers in lateral tubes at an interval of 60 cm and 50 cm spacing with 4LPH and 3.5 LPH capacities respectively
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6. Irrigation techniques in tomato
Factors Affecting on Tomato Irrigation Requirements Tomato water requirements are affected by soil, plant, climatic and management factors. Important soil factors include water intake rate and available water holding capacity of soils with different textures. The water intake is a useful parameter for designing irrigation systems and determining the rate at which water can be applied to the soil without the soil puddling. The available water holding capacity refers to the amount of water held by the soil in the rooting zone between the field capacity and the permanent wilting point.
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7. Crop stage & no of application Duration in days Fertilizer
Grade
Total fertilizer
Kg/ha
Nutrient applied
% of requirement N P K 1
Transplanting to plant establishment stage 10
19:19:19
13:0:45
Urea (46% N)
65.78
27.77
8.44
12.50
3.61
3.88 _ 5
19.99
25.00 2
Flower initiation to flowering 30
12:61:0
40.98
222.22
100.27
4.92
28.89
46.12
100.00 15
79.93 3
Flowering to fruit set
Urea(46% N)
138.88
63.90
18.05
29.39
62.50 40 50
59.94
75.00 4
Alternate day from picking 80
Urea (46%N)
20.49
111.11
50.14
2.46
14.44
23.06
50.00
199.82
250.00
100%
25%
Fertigation schedule for tomato hybrids Recommended dose: 200:250:250 kg/ha
Stage
Crop stage & no of application
Duration in days
Fertilizer
Grade
Total fertilizer
Kg/ha
Nutrient applied
% of requirement N P K 1
Transplanting to plant establishment stage 10
19:19:19
13:0:45
Urea (46% N)
65.78
27.77
8.44
12.50
3.61
3.88 _ 5
19.99
25.00 2
Flower initiation to flowering 30
12:61:0
40.98
222.22
100.27
4.92
28.89
46.12
100.00 15
79.93 3
Flowering to fruit set
Urea(46% N)
138.88
63.90
18.05
29.39
62.50 40 50
59.94
75.00 4
Alternate day from picking 80
Urea (46%N)
20.49
111.11
50.14
2.46
14.44
23.06
50.00
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8. Irrigation techniques in tomato
Ranges in available water capacity and intake rate for various soil textures.
Soil Texture
Available water capacity (mm of water/cm of soil)
Intake Rate (mm/hr)
Sands
12-20
Loamy sand
7-12
Sandy loam
Loam
Silt loam
4-7
Silty clay loam
Clay loam
Clay
2-5
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9. Irrigation techniques in tomato
The available water holding capacity refers to the amount of water held by the soil in the rooting zone between the field capacity and the permanent wilting point. The field capacity is the upper limit of soil water available for plant use. The permanent wilting point is the lower soil water limit below which plants cannot effectively extract water. The water holding capacity of a soil depends largely on its texture. Coarse-textured soils hold less water than fine-textured soils.
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10. Irrigation techniques in tomato
The peak water use periods occur during fruit set and fruit development.
Irregular and inadequate water supply during these periods can result in poor fruit set and blossom-end rot.
Optimizing both yield and quality is accomplished by matching water application to peak crop water use rate.
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11. Irrigation techniques in tomato
The yield threshold depletion or allowable soil water depletion is the percentage of available water that can be depleted from the soil before there is an adverse effect on yield and quality of the crop.
The allowable soil water depletion value for tomatoes is about 50%.
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12. Irrigation techniques in tomato
Figure 1. Average Water Use Rate for Irrigated Tomatoes
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13. Irrigation techniques in tomato
Important climatic factors include rainfall, solar radiation, air temperature, wind, and relative humidity.
The water loss by vegetation and soil during the growing season must be replenished by irrigation or rainfall for optimum crop production.
Rainfall usually reduces the irrigation requirements.
A gradual gentle rainfall over a long duration will adequately replenish the root zone without irrigation while heavy rains of short duration often causes runoff and deep percolation.
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14. Irrigation techniques in tomato
Tomato water use depends on solar radiation, temperature, wind, and relative humidity.
Over a wide range of climatic conditions, the simple product of air temperature times radiation can be used to estimate maximum tomato water use (Tan, 1980).
Good management practices are essential and ensure the greatest returns from irrigation.
The grower must plant recommended varieties and plant populations, provide the proper control of weeds, diseases and insects, and maintain proper fertility levels.
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15. Irrigation techniques in tomato
Studies on NPK drip fertigation in field growth tomato (Hebbar et al., (2003))
Furrow and drip irrigation
Drip irrigation with soil application of fertilizer registered significantly higher yield over furrow irrigation with soil application of fertilizer.
This yield increase can be attributed to significantly higher number of flowers and fruits/plant and fruit .
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16. Irrigation techniques in tomato
Yield/plant in drip irrigation over furrow irrigation. The better fertigation treatments maintained high concentration of NO3 – not shallow depth their deeper layer.
The accumulation of available P at 0-15 and 15-30cm was significantly higher in was fertigation because of complete solubility of Mono ammonium phosphate and frequent and small application rate soil application.
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17. Irrigation techniques in tomato
Exchangeable ‘K’ accumulation was higher at deeper layers(45-60cm) in furrow and drip irrigation where entire ‘K’ fertilizer was are lime soil applied. Indicatory potential leaching risk.
Root characteristics
Optimum root growth and distribution is needed for proper shoot anchorage, water and nutrient uptake and crop yield.
Majority of the roots were between 0 and 25cm and below this depth, only a few roots were observed.
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18. Although tomato is deep rooted crop can stretch up to 120cm depth, as observed in literature, this was not observed in the present study.
Therefore the amount of nutrient present in top 30 cm soil layer influenced the yield in different treatments.
Frequent supply of nutrient with irrigation water increased the availability of N, P, K in the crop root zone and which in turn influenced the root growth.
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19. Irrigation techniques in tomato
Drip irrigation compared with fertigation The distinctive yield advantage reflected in drip irrigation over furrow irrigation is further amplified by application of fertilizer through drip irrigation water. Fertigation treatments resulted in higher fruit yield over drip irrigation. Significantly higher number of fruits / plant and yield / plant was recorded with drip fertigation over drip irrigation.
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20. Source of fertilizer for fertigation Fertigation with normal fertilizers gave significantly lower yield compared to fertigation with water soluble fertilizers. This was attributed to complete solubility and availability of WSF as compared to normal fertilizers. WSF fertigation had higher concentration of available plant nutrients in top layer over normal fertilizer. Thus increasing the marketable fruit yield of tomato
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21. Irrigation techniques in tomato
Fertilizer use efficiency: Fertilizer use efficiency was significantly superior in drip irrigation or fertigation over furrow irrigation. This was due to better availability of moisture and nutrients throughout the growth stages in drip and fertigation system leading to better uptake of nutrients and production of tomato fruits.
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