Monaghan, J. M., Wood, M., Rahn, C. (Clive) and Hilton, Howard W. (2010) Improved efficiency of nutrient and water use for high quality field vegetable production using fertigation. Acta Horticulturae, Vol.852 . pp. 145-152. ISSN 0567-7572

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Abstract

Drip-based fertigation may improve the application efficiency of water and nutrients while maintaining or improving marketable yield and quality at harvest and post-harvest. Two plantings of lettuce (Lactuca sativa) were grown in the UK, with six N treatments and two methods of irrigation and N application. The conventional overhead irrigated treatments had all N applied in the base dressing with irrigation scheduled from SMD calculations. The closed loop treatments had nitrogen and irrigation delivered via drip automatically controlled by a sensor and logger system. The work established that water content in the root zone can be monitored in real time using horizontally oriented soil moisture sensors linked to data logging and telemetry, and that these data can be used to automatically trigger drip irrigation for commercially grown field vegetables. When the closed loop irrigation control was combined with fertigation treatments, lettuce crops were grown with savings of up to 60% and 75% of water and nitrogen respectively, compared to standard UK production systems. However, excess supply of N through fertigation rather than solid fertiliser was more detrimental to marketable yield and post harvest quality highlighting that care is needed when selecting N rates for fertigation.

Item Type:	Journal Item
Subjects:	S Agriculture > SB Plant culture
Divisions:	Faculty of Science > Life Sciences (2010- ) > Warwick HRI (2004-2010)
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Lettuce -- Growth, Lettuce -- Irrigation, Lettuce -- Water requirements, Irrigation -- Research, Crops and water, Plant nutrients
Journal or Publication Title:	Acta Horticulturae
Publisher:	International Society for Horticultural Science
ISSN:	0567-7572
Date:	2010
Volume:	Vol.852
Page Range:	pp. 145-152
Status:	Not Peer Reviewed
Access rights to Published version:	Open Access
Funder:	Great Britain. Dept. for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA)
Grant number:	HL0165LFV (DEFRA)
Conference Paper Type:	Paper
Title of Event:	IV International Symposium on Ecologically Sound Fertilization Strategies for Field Vegetable Production
Type of Event:	Conference
Location of Event:	Malmö, Sweden
References:	Bar-Yosef, B. 1999. Advances in fertigation. Advances in Agronomy. 65:1-79 DEFRA. 2003. Irrigation best Practice: Water management for field vegetable crops - a guide for vegetable growers. ADAS, Cambridge. Hilton, H.W., Clifford, S.C., Wurr, D.C.E. and Burton, K.S. 2008. The influence of agronomic factors on the visual quality of field grown minimally processed lettuce. J. Hort. Sci. Biotech. (in press) Knox, J.W., and Weatherhead, E.K. 2005. The growth of trickle irrigation in England and Wales; data, regulation and water resource impacts. Irrigation and Drainage. 54(2):135-143 McPharlin, I.R., Aylmore, P.M. and Jeffery, R.C. 1995. Nitrogen requirements of lettuce under sprinkler irrigation and trickle fertigation on a spearwood sand. Journal of Plant Nutrition. 18(2):219-241 MAFF. 2000. Fertiliser recommendations for agricultural and horticultural crops (RB209), 7th edition, 2000: The stationary office, London. OECD. 2000. International Standardisation of Fruit and Vegetables: Lettuces, Curled-leaved Endives and Broad-leaved (Batavian) Endives. OECD, Paris. Silber, A., Xu, G., Levkovitch, I., Soriano, S., Bilu, A. and Wallach, R. 2003. High fertigation frequency: the effects on uptake of nutrients, water and plant growth. Plant and Soil 253(2):467-477. Whitfield W.A.D. 1974. The soils of the National Vegetable Research Station, Wellesbourne. Report of the National Vegetable Research Station for 1973, pp 21-30.
URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/3028

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