Soil water potential during different phenological phases of coffee irrigated by center pivot

Abstract

Irrigation management can be established, considering the soil water potential, as the limiting factor for plant growth, assuming the soil water content between the field capacity and the permanent wilting point as available water for crops. Thus, the aim of this study was to establish the soil water potential interval during four different phenological phases of coffee irrigated by center pivot. The experiment was set at the experimental area of the Engineering Department at the Federal University of Lavras, in Brazil. The coffee variety planted is designated as Rubi, planted 0.8 meters apart, with rows spaced 3.5 meters apart. The treatments corresponded to the water depths applied based on different percentages of Kc and reference evapotranspiration (ET 0 ) values. Sensors were used to measure the soil water potential interval, installed 25 centimeters depth. In order to compare the results, it was considered as the best matric potential the one that was balanced with the soil water content that resulted in the largest coffee productivity. Based on the obtained results, we verified that in the phases of fruit expansion and ripening, the best results were obtained, before the irrigations, when the soil water potential values reached -35 and -38 kPa, respectively. And in the flowering, small green and fruit expansion phases, when the values reached -31 and -32 kPa, respectively.KEY WORDS: irrigated coffee, available water, Coffea arabica L. POTENCIAL DE ÁGUA NO SOLO EM DIFERENTES ESTÁDIOS FENOLÓGICOS

Curva de retenção de água elaborada pelo método do psicrômetro para uso na determinação do índice "S" de qualidade física do solo

“…Dentre estes, destacam-se os métodos da centrífuga (SILVA et al, 2006;COSTA et al, 2008), do funil de placa porosa (CINTRA et al, 2004), câmara de pressão de Richards (CINTRA et al, 2004), tensiometria (EVANGELISTA et al, 2013) e método do papel-filtro (LUCAS et al, 2011).…”