IRRIGATION SYSTEM CAPACITY DETERMINED BY CONTAINER PLANT EVAPOTRANSPIRATION

An irrigation system should be designed and constructed to convey and deliver the maximum amount of water needed for container woody ornamental plants grown in the irrigated area. However, water use of container-grown woody plants has not been researched extensively and considerable time and resources would be required to investigate the numerous and complex production scenarios. In this paper we used CCROP (Container Crop Resource Optimization Program) to simulate the daily maximum amount of water needed to replace evapotranspiration (ET) of Viburnum odoratissimum grown in 10-L (28 cm diameter) containers in Plant City, Florida with standard container plant production practices. Simulations with 38 years of weather data and 24 planting dates per year showed that an irrigation system designed to supply 2.6 cm of water would replace the maximum daily ET observed for any year and planting date. These results indicated that simulations provided a convenient tool for determining the design capacity of an irrigation system.