Vegetable Crop Response to Subsurface Drip Irrigation

Abstract

Drip irrigation lines placed 15 cm (deep) and 5 cm (shallow) below soil surface were compared to furrow irrigation with zucchini squash as a summer crop and cabbage as a winter crop. Both crops were grown on the same drip lines in each treatment. Urea phosphate was injected in drip lines during growing season while the furrow-irrigated plots received preplant application of phosphorus. In squash, deep lines produced higher yields than did shallow. Deep-drip yields were comparable to those with furrow but used half the water and half the fertilizer. In cabbage, deep-drip yielded slightly higher than shallow-drip and furrow. In these studies, deep-drip was superior in applying water and fertilizer.