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A New Automated Irrigation System Reduces Irrigation Consumption during Gardenia Production Using Overhead Irrigation

Wednesday, August 5, 2015
Napoleon Expo Hall (Sheraton Hotel New Orleans)
Katie Guitreaux , Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA
Edward W. Bush, Associate Professor , Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA
Jeff Beasley , Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA
Maureen Thiessen , Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA
Jeff Kuehny , Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA
Properly scheduling irrigation for nursery container crops can be difficult in substrates having low water-holding capacity. To produce high quality plants, nursery managers often apply excess irrigation resulting in high leaching and nutrient movement.  Therefore, a simple, automated, sensor-driven irrigation system designed at Louisiana State University (LSU) to better regulate irrigation application volumes was evaluated using Gardenia jasminoides ‘August Beauty grown in one of two container sizes (1 and 3 gallons) and two pinebark substrates (fine and coarse) over a 4 month period.  Gardenia grown using the new irrigation system were compared to plants grown using a traditional timed over-head irrigation system. The traditional timed system applied 2.5 cm of water per day. Over the course of the study, gardenia had similar growth between irrigation systems within substrate treatments.  Gardenia growing in coarse substrate had higher growth indices and greater biomass compared to gardenia growing in the finer substrate. Within four months of planting, all gardenia had reached marketable size. However, gardenia grown using the new irrigation system reduce water application volumes >30% compared to the traditional timed irrigation system.      

 

See more of: Nursery Crops 1 (Poster)
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