Water Requirement of Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) Orchards for Season December-July (Ambe Bahar)

Arun Bhagat, Pramod Popale

Abstract: Pomegranate evapotranspiration determined by the effects of various weather conditions were incorporated into reference crop evapotranspiration and crop characteristics into crop coefficient. The average ETr values over the 31 years were determined by Penman-Monteith method. The probability distributions that were fitted to ETr values are Log Normal, Gumbel and Weibulls probability distribution functions. Chi-square test was performed to know the probability distribution of best fit. ETr values at 10% to 90% probability level for Penman-Monteith method using probability distribution of best fit. The values of reference crop evapotranspiration, crop coefficient, area factor, water requirement and water to be applied would be useful for the irrigation water management of Pomegranate. The water applied through drip system at 90% efficiency to pomegranate plantation spaced at 3 x 4.5 m. The result revealed that, for Ambe bahar: the average amounts of water to be applied for the pomegranate tree of 1st to 5th year age at 70% probability level for Solapur district are 3.82, 10.63, 29.00, 40.07 and 49.89 l/d/tree respectively.

Keywords: Reference Crop Evapotranspiration (ETr), Crop Coefficient (kc), Pomegranate Evapotranspiration (ETp), Ambe bahar, Water requirement