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> For a given crop the transpiration is the same whether flooded or irrigated by another method. Is this true?
by ericpauley 3y ago
> For a given crop the transpiration is the same whether flooded or irrigated by another method.
Is this true?
- jeffbee 3y agoYes? It’s a chemical process. A given yield of a given cultivar will transpire a fixed amount of water.
- buffington 3y agoI want to understand this better. Are you saying that flooding a field loses the same amount of water to evaporation as other, more targeted, means of irrigation? Or are you saying "alfalfa itself uses the same amount of water regardless of irrigation methood." If it's the latter, that makes sense. A plant can only use so much, and that rate of use is consistent for a given crop, but that doesn't address the water not used by the alfalfa. Wouldn't flooding lose more water to evaporation than other irrigation methods?
- ericpauley 3y agoThis is my beef as well. While the crop itself may use the same amount, this is a tremendously unhelpful metric for reasoning about total water use.
- thehappypm 3y agoYes, but, most of the water loss and flood farming is because there is water pulled up everywhere around the plants and a lot of it just directly evaporates. That’s why drip irrigation is so much better, you’re targeting water to the plants