Monitoring Root Development Under Trickle Irrigation

In a research project on water management of trickle irrigated row crops, a simulation model for two-dimensional infiltration and water uptake has been developed to predict the soil moisture budget throughout the growing season of a crop as an aid to engineering system design. Since data was needed to validated the mathematical model an experiment was conducted in a glasshouse on a tomato crop using a wide range of water application rates and irrigation intervals. This paper describes the techniques used to monitor the growth and distribution of the root system and the results obtained for the different irrigation treatments. As the objective of the experiment was to produce data for model validation no attempt was made to replicate the results thus allowing an experiment to be performed on a modest scal