Irrigation Management of Greenhouse Marigold Using Tensiometer: Effects on Yield and Water Use Efficiency

Abstract

Greenhouse is an important structure to minimize biotic and abiotic stress on crops, which could be grown round the year, during off-season and also under extreme conditions and high rainfall areas. It provides a controlled environment inherently free from pests and disease problems that increases the production and productivity per unit area as compared to open field conditions. Irrigation is a crucial practice, but the farmer irrigates relying on their own experience. One of the possible approaches for proper irrigation scheduling is measuring the soil water potential, simple and easy to manage. A study was conducted to draw the characteristics curve and to examine the effect of irrigation schedule based on the use of characteristics curve on yield and water consumption of greenhouse marigold compared with open field grown on sandy loam soil. Drip irrigation was adopted, with tensiometer based irrigation scheduling. The experimental results showed that the marigold performed well under greenhouse with yield of 20.4 t ha-1and water use efficiency was 108.6 kg   ha-1mm-1 as compared to field experiment.