A comparison of drip and furrow irrigated cotton on a cracking clay soil

Summary

To determine if drip irrigation increases fertilizer requirements and/or the efficiency of utilization compared to furrow irrigation, growth and nitrogen uptake were measured in a four-year experiment comparing surface (SD) and buried (BD) methods of drip irrigation with furrow irrigation (F) of cotton. The soil was a slowly-permeable cracking grey clay (vertisol) at Narrabri, N.S.W Drip-irrigated treatments were maintained at a deficit of 45 mm below the fully-irrigated soil water content, while F was irrigated when the deficit reached about 90 mm. Nitrogen (N) fertilizer was applied weekly with drip irrigation to BD and SD over the first half of the season, and as a conventional single application to F before sowing. Leaf area index (LAI), dry matter and N uptake were influenced more by season than by method of irrigation. LAI during boll filling averaged 2.4 and was 10% greater in BD than in SD and F. Final dry matter averaged 988 g m⁻² and was 10% greater in BD and SD than in F. The efficiency of conversion of solar radiation into dry matter averaged 0.55 g MJ⁻¹; lint yield as a fraction of dry matter averaged 0.18; neither parameter was consistently influenced by the method of irrigation. Total N uptake ranged from 97 to 170 kg ha⁻¹ and was influenced by irrigation method in one season only, when it was less in F than in SD and BD. N was often taken up later under drip irrigation than under F: there was up to 40% less N taken up by SD than F in the early flowering stage. The delay was associated with later application of N to BD and SD compared with F, and the application of N to the surface of alternate furrows of SD. Plant factors such as root ageing and competition between roots and bolls, were also implicated. We conclude that all of the N should be applied to drip-irrigated cotton on these soils by mid flowering, and that some of the N should be applied in the soil before sowing.