Onion growth, yield and quality as influenced by different drip lateral depths and irrigation levels

Abstract

This research aimed to evaluate the different lateral depths and irrigation water applied with subsurface drip irrigation on onion production traits during the spring growing seasons of 2009 and 2010 in Tekirdag conditions. Three different lateral depths as 0 (surface drip), 10 and 20 cm (subsurface drip) and four different irrigation (50, 75, 100 and 125% of Class A pan evaporation). The seasonal evapotranspiration ranged from 337.1 and 715.4 mm depending on irrigation water applied. The highest onion yield obtained in the treatment which lateral was buried in 20 cm depth and the amount of irrigation water was applied based on 125% of Class A pan evaporation. It can be said that the total marketable onion yield increases as the amount of lateral depth and applied irrigation water increases. The irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE) changed from 4.03 to 18.30 kg m−3 while the water use efficiency (WUE) changed from 2.61 to 6.86 kg m−3. The highest IWUE and WUE obtained in the treatment which lateral was buried in 20 cm depth and the amount of irrigation water was applied based on 50% of Class A pan evaporation.