2008-09 Deliverables
Task 4 Research
Principal Investigator(s): Bob Wiedenfeld
- Determine long term water use and crop responses for conventional vs several conservation tillage, double cropping, and cool season cover cropping systems in the subtropical Rio Grande Valley in a biannual cotton– sorghum rotation for a 6th and final year. Production practices for these systems will continue to be developed and evaluated.
- Quantify sugarcane yield, sugar content, sugar yield and water utilization for green vs burned sugarcane for a third and final year.
- Compare growth, yield and crop water use by sugarcane under three different irrigation methods: furrow, sprinkler and drip for a second year.
- Compare crop water use for bioenergy crop production systems under different levels of biomass return in a new field study to be established in 2008.
- 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)
- 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).
- Journal articles to be written:
- Tillage systems, double cropping, and cool season cover crop effects on crop water use in a subtropical environment. To be submitted to Tillage Research
- Green vs burned harvesting effects on sugarcane water use. To be submitted to Agric. Water Manage.
- Comparison of burned vs green harvested sugarcane on growth, nutrient requirements and water use based on growth model. To be submitted to J. Amer. Soc. Sugar Cane Technol.
- Several other papers will be written in conjunction with coworkers on collaborative research activities.