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Seepage irrigation is the predominant irrigation method adopted by potato growers in Florida, involving pumping a large volume of groundwater to maintain a high water table for the root zone. Seepage irrigation has low water-use efficiency (20%-50%). Thus, large volume of water is needed. Sprinkler irrigation, however, has much greater water-use efficiency (>85%). A three years project was completed to explore the feasibility of using sprinkler irrigation (overhead) to replace seepage irrigation for Florida`s potato production. The project was conducted on four sub-farms of Jones Potato Farm with a total acreage of 2,800 acres, Parrish, Florida, from 2012 to 2015. Two irrigation systems, overhead and seepage, were randomly arranged and compared side by side with four replications by using 14 center pivots. Both chipping potato (‘Atlantic’) and tablestock potato (‘Red LaSoda’) were used. Water usage and tuber yields were measured., Seepage irrigation used 20.0 inches of irrigation water on average, while overhead irrigation used only 8.5 inches. Approximately 1 billion gallons of irrigation water (57.5%) was saved using overhead irrigation during the three growing seasons. However, after converting seepage into overhead irrigation, tuber yield was dropped by 10%, which meant that the traditional fertilizer program was not suitable for overhead irrigated potato production.. To fix the problem of yield reduction, a new project has been proceeding with fertigation on the same farm and on the UF/IFAS Hastings Agricultural Extension Center. Overhead irrigation with fertigation will probably the future for Florida’s potato production. |
