Monitoring sugar beet rooting depth irrigated with recycled waste water and different irrigation methods for water savings in an arid climate

Abstract

ABSTRACT- A detailed understanding of crop rooting systems will facilitate water use reduction, optimized nutrient uptake and irrigation scheduling more efficiently. A field experiment was conducted during 2005-2006 to investigate sugar beet rooting depth growth, irrigated with three irrigation methods (subsurface drip, surface drip and furrow) and two water qualities (recycled wastewater: EC= 1.52 dS m-1 and fresh water: EC=0.51 dS m-1) in order to improve irrigation water management. A local rooting depth model was developed and three empirical models describing the root growth were evaluated. A significant reduction in sugar beet root depth was observed in the plots irrigated with furrows compared to those irrigated with the pressure irrigation methods. However, no significant difference (p