K I N G S

R I V E R

C O N S E R V A T I O N

D I S T R I C T

IRRIGATION N E W S
Volume 14, No. 3 May - June 2003

Stress Management
Plant stress is an important consideration in crop production. Proper irrigation management controls when and how much stress occurs. Many growers manage their own irrigations; some hire others to handle the details. Ron Brase and Randy Kazarian are consultants who bring a considerable amount of irrigation experience to the their clients. Ron Brase is the president of an agricultural consulting business in Fresno. His organization provides diversified technical services including irrigation scheduling, pest and nutrition management, and crop damage and land development assessments. He has worked in this field for 25 years. Randy Kazarian has literally worked with grapes since he was old enough to drive a tractor on his father's farm. Currently, he manages approximately 8,000 acres of vineyards for himself, family, and clients. Of this, about 1,000 acres are raisins with the balance being wine grapes. Randy covers an area from Chowchilla to Bakersfield plus some observational work around Lodi and Paso Robles. To these men, irrigation scheduling is both an art and a science. "We employ a variety of techniques to measure soil moisture as well as stress levels within the plant," says Brase. "We primarily use neutron probes to monitor soil moisture and plant pressure chambers to measure leaf and stem water potential." "The tools available enable me to adjust my irrigation schedules constantly, " says Kazarian. Scheduling irrigations is a constant part of his duties. "I adjust my schedules weekly, based on predicted weather and current soil and plant conditions." Excess water promotes vegetative growth, while insufficient water will overstress the vines and ruin quality. What about irrigation management and crop stress? "It's all in the timing of the stress," says Brase. "Properly timed stress discourages excessive vegeta-

Randy Kazarian and Ron Brase tive growth and promotes fruit development with the characteristics a customer wants." The management of soil moisture and vine stress is also critical to canopy management. Brase adds, "With well-managed canopies, fruit exposure is enhanced and disease pressure is reduced." Many of Kazarian's growers deliver grapes for use in wineries. Each winery looks for specific quality characteristics in the grapes that they buy, and this makes his job a little trickier. "Grape growers typically think in tons per acre and brix (sugar content), not color or taste. Taste is rapidly becoming one of the most important factors in grape selection. Many wineries will produce small batches of wine from selected loads then run blind taste tests on them. If a grower ranks well, it could mean the difference between a renewal contract being offered or not," says Kazarian. When asked how irrigation decisions are made because of a wet or dry winter, both responded that the local conditions dictate the schedule. "It's dynamic" says Kazarian. "Each area is different. Each variety is different. Sometimes it is different in the same block and variety. A grower must consider and prioritize their goals when planning an irrigation strategy."

KRCD Irrigation Services, Offered at No Cost to Growers in the District

Field Evaluation Services Determine the uniformity of a drip, furrow, border, or sprinkler system. Best month for evaluation: _____________________________ The Irrigation pump also needs testing. Irrigation System: __________________________________ Crop: ______________________________________________ Acres: _____________________________________________ Contact Person: ____________________________________ Phone:_____________________________________________

Mail To: Eric Athorp Kings River Conservation District 4886 E. Jensen Avenue, Fresno, CA 93725 or email your information to: eathorp@krcd.org

How To Be Efficient
Being efficient is important for every grower. Greater yields are obtained with fewer inputs. Efficient irrigation depends upon both the uniformity of the irrigation and the ratio of beneficially used water to the total applied.
Depth of Water

Figure 1 - Low Uniformity Condition

Percent of Field
0 0 25 50 75 100

What is irrigation efficiency (IE)? It is the ratio of beneficial use to total input into a system. Beneficial use is defined as crop ET plus the added leaching fraction. This is determined by accounting for all the inputs and outputs within a defined area. For our purposes, the defined area is from the soil surface to the bottom of the effective root zone on a field level. The concept can be expanded to analyze an entire district or groundwater basin. Inputs consist of effective rainfall and irrigation water. Effective rainfall is that fraction of total rainfall that actually infiltrates the soil profile and is not lost to evaporation or runoff. A simplified but reasonable estimate for effective rainfall is 50 percent of the yearly total. Outputs include surface runoff, crop ET, and the deep percolation of water beyond the amount budgeted for leaching. Application Efficiency (AE) is one method for evaluating efficiency:
AE* = Average Depth Contributing to Target x 100 Average Depth of Water Applied
*from Burt et al Irrigation Performance Measures: Efficiency and Uniformity. Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering, 1987

Low 1/4 Average = 1.8

2

3 Irrigation Requirement
3

Severe Under Irrigation

Over Irrigation
4

AE = 100%

IE = 87%

DU = 60%

Figure 2 - Average Uniformity Condition

Percent of Field
0 0 25 50 75 100

Depth of Water

Low 1/4 Average = 2.25 3 Irrigation Requirement Under Irrigation Reduced

Deep Percolation Reduced

AE = 100%

IE = 92%

DU = 75%

Adapted from Burt & Styles, ITRC 1994

The target is defined as the consumption of water (either amount since last irrigation or season total) by the crop plus any applied for leaching. For example, if the target amount is 44 inches (40 inches ET, 4 inches leaching) and the average applied was 50 inches, the efficiency is 88 percent. However, AE can sometimes mask problems within a field. If this water was not applied with a high degree of uniformity, the usefulness of this number is low. Distribution Uniformity (DU) must be taken into account in order to define the true water use efficiency. DU is a measure of how evenly irrigation water is applied. The goal is to deliver the same amount of water to every plant. The AE may be very high but if the DU is low then some areas will be seriously over irrigated while others are under irrigated causing multiple problems including poor yields. Figure 1 shows this situation. How does a grower apply water more efficiently? The first step is to improve DU. There are standard

methods for measuring DU for all irrigation system types. Once the problem areas are identified, corrective actions can be taken to increase the water supply to the driest areas without increasing the amount applied to the wetter areas. For pressurized systems, this usually involves a redistribution of system pressures and emitter maintenance. Surface systems may require land leveling or different furrow configurations to correct non-uniformity. Pump repairs can also be of benefit as higher flow rates can either reduce set run times or increase set sizes. Figure 2 shows a field with a higher DU. In this case, less water is wasted to deep percolation and the drier part of the field is receiving more water without increasing the total amount applied. A KRCD irrigation review can provide growers with the necessary tools to improve DU and use available water with greater efficiency. This service is provided free of charge to growers within the KRCD service area and can be scheduled using the coupon on the front or by calling the KRCD Irrigation Specialist at 237-5567 ext. 117.
NON-PROFIT ORG. U.S. Postage PAID PERMIT NO. 1687

IRRIGATION
N E W S
Reprint freely with credit to: Irrigation News, a bimonthly publication of the Kings River Conservation District For more information contact an Irrigation Specialist at (559) 237-5567 ext. 117 eathorp@krcd.org

Kings River Conservation District 4886 E. Jensen Avenue Fresno, CA 93725-1899

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