Barley Response to Soil Water Depletion Levels, 2000

Abstract

This research represents the first year of a project to determine when to irrigate barley based on soil water depletion levels. The purpose of this work is to establish the optimum irrigation timing based on depletion of plant available water in the soil. A field experiment was conducted at the Maricopa Agricultural Center testing irrigation of barley at 35, 50, 65, and 80% depletion of plant available water in the soil for two barley varieties, Baretta and Max. Grain yields averaged over the two varieties were 8415, 7735, 7512, and 4553 lbs/acre for the 35, 50, 65, and 80% depletion levels, respectively. The results of this study indicate irrigating at 35% soil water depletion is optimal for barley grain yield.