Design and management of a drip irrigation system for an optimum potato yield

This study was conducted to determine the effects of different lateral spacings and wetting factors on the yield and yield components of drip-irrigated potato under the Middle Anatolian climatic conditions in Konya, Turkey. The experiments were carried out during the growth seasons of 2008 and 2009. The Russet Burbank potato variety was used as a plant material in this study. The irrigation design treatments consisted of two different lateral spacings (A<inf>1</inf>= 0.7 m and A<inf>2</inf>= 1.4 m) and three different wetting factors (P<inf>1</inf>= 1.0, P<inf>2</inf>= 0.5, and P<inf>3</inf>: A variable percentage of the wetted area depending on the lateral spacing). The results showed that the total amounts of applied irrigation water ranged from 297 to 625 mm and from 288 to 598 mm in 2008 and 2009, respectively. Considering the average yields for the two years, the highest tuber yield (50.87 t ha^–1) was obtained from the A<inf>1</inf>P<inf>1</inf> treatment, and the lowest tuber yield (27.37 t ha^–1) was obtained from the A<inf>2</inf>P<inf>3</inf> treatment. It was found that the different lateral spacings and wetting factors statistically affected the mean tuber weight, the number of tubers per plant, the tuber diameter, the tuber size, and the marketable tuber yield (P< 0.01). The highest Water Use Efficiency (WUE) and Irrigation Water Use Efficiency (IWUE) calculated were 7.78 and 9.40 kg m⁻³, respectively, in the A<inf>1</inf>P<inf>3</inf> treatment. A single lateral design for two crop rows resulted in less income than one lateral design for each crop row for dripirrigated marketable potatoes.