THE INFLUENCE OF IRRIGATION AND DRIP FERTIGATION REGIME ON SPECIFIC WATER CONSUMPTION AND EVAPOTRANSPIRATION COEFFICIENT IN TOMATO CROP PRODUCTION

• Published in: Poljoprivreda i šumarstvo Vol. 60; no. 4; p. 243
• Main Authors: Tanaskovikj, Vjekoslav, Cukaliev, Ordan, Markoski, Mile, Srdjevic, Bojan, Spalevic, Velibor, Simunic, Ivan, Moteva, Milena, Djurovic, Nevenka
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Titograd University of Montenegro, Biotechnical Faculty 01.10.2014
• ISSN: 0554-5579; 1800-9492

The research experiment aimed at estimation of the influence of irrigation and drip fertigation on the specific water consumption (SWC) and evapotranspiration coefficient (ET^sub k^) of tomato in Skopje region, Macedonia. Different irrigation and fertigation regimes were applied to the tomato hybrid Optima, grown in an open field. Five different irrigation and fertilization regimes were performed. The first three of them were drip fertigation in every 2, 4 and 6 days, respectively (B1, B2 and B3), the fourth one was drip irrigation with conventional application of fertilizers (Ø1), while the last one was furrow irrigation with conventional application of fertilizers (Ø2). Based on the average values of the SWC, a conclusion is derived that there is no significant difference between the treatments B1 and B2. The treatment ?3 indicated 12-15% higher SWC in comparison with ?2 and B1, i.e. around 38 1 kg^sup -1^ more. This result is considered statistically significant. The control treatment Ø1 induced almost 20% higher SWC in comparison with the treatment of the same irrigation regime but with different fertilizer application schedule (?2). In addition, the effect of the irrigation techniques applied on SWC has been analysed by comparing the results from the control treatments Ø1 and Ø2. The use of water per kg of tomato was 46.5% higher in comparison with the one obtained from Ø1. The results are statistically significant at 0.05 level of probability. Similar results were obtained for ET^sub k^, e.g. the lowest value of the average evapotranspiration coefficient was obtained in treatment B1 and the highest one - in the control treatment Ø2; an increase of 84% was in favour of Ø2.