Journal of Applied Horticulture. 2005: 7(2): 137-138

Effect of drip water application at sub-surface on grapevine performance - a case study.

Jagdev Sharma; Upadhyay, A K; Adsule, P G

National Research Centre for Grapes, Manjri Farm P.O., Pune - 413 307, India.

To minimize the expenditure on irrigation water, the efficiency of sub-surface application of drip water was evaluated for one year (from April 2003 to April 2004) on a 6.475-ha drip-irrigated commercial vineyard at Ghuli Garden in Shohale, Solapur district, Maharashtra, India. The vines had suffered from moisture stress during the year preceding the experimentation. In the present study, 3-year-old Y-trellis-trained and drip-irrigated Thompson Seedless vines were used to compare the efficiency of the two methods of irrigation. The vineyard had a shallow soil with a high infiltration rate. For the subsurface method, the irrigation water from drippers was applied below the soil surface at 4 inches depth. The sub-surface method of irrigation produced a higher yield than the surface drip irrigation (12.49 and 8.16 t/ha, respectively). The water use efficiency of sub-surface method was 28.91 kg grapes/mm irrigation compared to only 18.88 kg grapes/mm irrigation with surface drip irrigation. The results of this study demonstrated the superiority of sub-surface application of drip irrigation water over surface drip method for grapevines in terms of better yield and less expenditure on irrigation.