2007-08 Deliverables
Task 4 Research
Principal Investigator(s): Bob Wiedenfeld
Task 4: On-Farm Irrigation System Management
- Quantify yield and crop water use for conventional vs several conservation tillage systems in the subtropical Rio Grande Valley in the third cycle of a biannual cotton - sorghum rotation. Production practices for these systems are also being developed and evaluated.
- Quantify sugarcane yield, sugar content, sugar yield and water utilization for replicated green vs burned sugarcane in the second ratoon crop.
- Compare growth, yield and crop water use by sugarcane under three different irrigation methods in the plant crop: furrow, sprinkler and drip.
- Use the CroPMan model for sugarcane production in the Lower Rio Grande Valley to compare long term crop growth, nutrient requirements and water use under burned vs green harvested conditions (in cooperation with RGBI collaborators at Temple).
- Compare crop water use by different cool-season vegetable crops under drip and flood irrigation (in cooperation with Drs. John Jifon and Juan Enciso).
- Develop and conduct evaluations of crop water use based on soil moisture monitoring (in cooperation with Drs. Juan Enciso and Shad Nelson)
- Journal articles to be written:
- Drip irrigation of melons in South Texas. Enciso, Jifon & Wiedenfeld. To be submitted to Agric. Water Management.
- Comparison of burned vs green harvested sugarcane on growth, nutrient requirements and water use based on growth model. Wiedenfeld & Enciso (Steglich & Harmon). To be submitted to J. Amer. Soc. Sugar Cane Technol.