PULSED DRIP IRRIGATION EFFECT ON WATER MANAGEMENT

A research on pulse drip irrigation was carried out to investigate the water distribution patterns resulting from the pulsing technique with equal on-off intervals of 5, 15, 30, and 60 minutes for the purpose of comparison with continuos drip application. Tests were conducted using laboratory and field trials. The laboratory experiment involve two types of soil (sand and clay loam), while the field experiment was performed using tomato crop growing on loamy soil. Results of these tests have demonstrated the effectiveness of the pulsed irrigation technique as compared to the continuous drip application in achieving better water management control in addition of being an active mean of reducing the hazard of emitter clogging. Field experiment have also shown that small orifice emitters operate continuously could be replaced by large orifice emitters that operate intermittently, with no adverse effects on tomato yield