WATER REQUIREMENTS OF TROPICAL ORNAMENTAL CROPS

Developing irrigation management strategies for crops requires an under-standing of the amount of water that can be consumed by the plant.
The main objec-tive of this study was to quantify daily water requirements of tropical ornamental crops and how their water requirements are related to reference evapotranspiration (ET_o) and plant size. Anthurium, Kentia Palm, and Raphis Palm plants were grown in different sized containers (volume = 19 L, 11.5 L, and 19 L, respectively) and daily water use was calculated by measuring the difference between the maximum and minimum water content within 36 to 48 hours.
The ET_o was positively correlated with solar radiation (r²=0.93) under shaded greenhouse conditions in Hawaii.
The daily water use of Anthurium and Raphis Palm gradually increased as ET_o increased, and varied by plant species and plant size.
In general, plants required higher volume of water as plant size increased.
Raphis palm required a relatively higher volume of water compared to Kentia palm in responsive to the increase of plant volume.
Our results suggest that ET_o provides a good estimate of the daily water use of the tropical ornamental crops tested in this experiment and irrigation should be adjusted based on the weather conditions and plant sizes.

International Symposium on New Technologies for Environment Control, Energy-Saving and Crop Production in Greenhouse and Plant Factory – Greensys 2013

H.J. Kim, P. Singleton, J. Lichty , A. Kawabata

Anthurium, Kentia Palm, Raphis Palm, evapotranspiration

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2014.1037.52