Gary A. Clark Research Agricultural Engineer Subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) systems deliver water to the root zone of crops using polyethylene drip tubing that is permanently buried below the soil surface. In properly designed and operated systems, little or no wetting of the soil surface occurs, nor is there visual evidence of the system performance. Because SDI systems apply water different...

For intensive production systems like the Blue Ridge Aquaculture (BRA), based in Martinsville, VA, there are significant economic incentives to reuse the waste by diverting it into a cropping system that would increase the total productivity and total resource-reuse efficiency, and decrease the environmental, ecological, and financial costs of aquacultural waste disposal. In order to facilitate...

The need to determine the variables that help characterize the real water status of vineyards calls for further research aimed at testing current techniques for water status quantification, and particularly for the determination of leaf water potential (LWP). The Scholander Pressure Chamber (SPC) has been widely used and considered as the reference technique. Yet, the frequent use of thermocoup...

Irrigation canal simulation models are representations of physical irrigation systems in computer which can be calibrated to simulate and optimize the actual canal hydraulics and operational conditions. This paper presents hydraulic simulation of canal reaches and structures of Lower Bari Doab Canal for effective canal management and operations to improve the performance of an irrigation system...

Napier grass is a perennial, tropical C-4 grass that can produce large amounts of forage. However, low temperatures and drought stress limit its productivity and nutritive value as a forage. To overcome these limitations, pearl millet × napier grass hybrids (PMN) were developed. It was hypothesized that PMN hybrids were more drought-tolerant, produced higher yields, and had higher nutritive val...

Automatic irrigation scheduling based on real-time measurement of soilless substrate water status has been recognized as a promising approach for efficient greenhouse irrigation management. Identification of proper irrigation set points is crucial for optimal crop performance, both in terms of yield and quality, and optimal use of water resources. The objective of the present study was to deter...

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) have been highly developed which can be used in agriculture to enable optimal irrigation scheduling. Since there is an absence of widely used available methods to support effective agriculture practice in different weather conditions, WSN technology can be used to optimise irrigation in the crop fields. This paper presents architecture of an irrigation system by i...