Irrigation Essentials

What does irrigation mean to you?

Word cloud
Why water?
What is the primary function of
water in a plant?
 Water and
plants?
Top reasons!
✓Chemical processes;

✓Part of the “living material” in the cells;

✓Keeps it stiff

✓Transporting nutrients and organic compounds;

✓Through transpiration, cools the leaves;

Water flow pathway
Root hairs – the smallest
pipe on an orchard!
But the most important….

• 3micron diameter

• 300 hairs per mm2

• 5mm -20mm behind tip

• Very sensitive to soil “humidity”

and moisture
 Guttation
Under pressure!
Evapotranspiration video?

HTTPS://FB.WATCH/M8CG82GM08/?MIBEXTID=6AA
MW6
 Soils
▪ Hold the plants – anchors roots

▪ Provides nutrients and buffer

▪ Stores water for the plants

What are the important soil

characteristics relevant to irrigation?
Soils are
complex
 Soil

▪ Soil is more than just sediment!

▪ About half solids (sand, silt, clay + organic matter)

▪ And about half holes for water and air

▪ Bigger “macropores” act as drains and air pockets

▪ Small “micropores” store water

▪ Pores must be connected for water to move

▪ Cultivation disrupts connections

▪ Highly variable across New Zealand

Understanding
Soil
▪ Well-structured, medium-textured
soils have a good mix of
▪ macropores for drainage and
▪ micropores for water storage

▪ Very heavy, highly weathered soils

▪ many micropores, so hold water
▪ very few macropores, water/air
movement is restricted

▪ Very light or stony soils

▪ many macropores but few
micropores
▪ cannot hold much water
 What soil have you got?
▪ Dig a Hole

400mm ▪ Take a closer look at different points on your farm.

▪ Take some samples / photos.

▪ Look and measure your horizons.

500mm ▪ Do a Jar Test

▪ Refer to databases
 ▪ Soil texture – feel method (Irrigation NZ Essentials p 16)

▪ Soil profile builder (Plant & Food Research) – IrrigationNZ

website
Sources of ▪ S-Map on-line
Information ▪ Measured soil moisture data and release curves – e.g. from labs
DIY Soil Type Identification
WARNING :
DO NOT ATTEMPT A JAR TEST IN THE KITCHEN!
DIY Soil Type Identification
1. Take samples from representative areas within your
irrigation area.
2. Take samples from and measure your soil horizons.
3. Clearly mark on the containers of soil what site they
came from and what depth.
4. Take about half a kilo (500grms) per soil type/site.

WARNING : DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS IN THE KITCHEN!

1. Remove all foreign material and stones from sample.

2. Estimate the amount of stones removed as a % of
sample or weigh the sample before and after removal.
3. Crush any large particles to produce an even sample
consistency.
4. You should have half a cup (measured) of sifted sample
DIY Soil Type Identification
Pour into your glass jar 1 part soil, and 4 parts water,
e.g. poured in a 1/2 cup of soil and 2 cups of
water. Next, add 1 tablespoon of clothes washing
detergent per 2 cups of water and shake for five
minutes. The detergent acts as a surfactant which
allows the bonds between the dirt particles to easily
break apart…and settle to the bottom of your jar.

Now wait for 24-48 hours. Soil is made up of sand,

silt, and clay. The sand will almost immediately
settle to the bottom, the silt settles within about 5
minutes. However, the clay can take 1-2 days to
fully settle to the bottom.
 DIY Soil Type Identification
Here’s where you need to do a little
math. Measure the total of all the
layers, then measure each layer
separately. Divide each layer by the
total measurement of your Clay
Silt
settlement. Example, we measured 3.1 Total
cm of sand…then divided by 4.6 cm Sand
Total of all the Layers = 68% Sand. You
get the idea. Here’s what we got.

Total Sand, Silt, Clay – 4.6 cm

Sand – layer measured 3.1 cm. Divided by 4.6 cm total = 68% Sand
Silt – layer measured 1.5 cm. Divided by 4.6 cm total = 32% Sand
Clay – trace = 0%

24 hours later, you can see above that, more or less, all the soil has settled to the
bottom: Sand is the bottom layer, Silt is the darker middle layer, and Clay is the light
colour layer on top. BTW above, you can barely see our top layer because there’s only
a trace of clay in our soil sample.
 Identifying Soil Texture
CLAY 20%
= 10%
SILT = 60%
30%
SAND = 20%
60%
 Soil Variability

▪ Soil in New Zealand is highly variable.

▪ Volcanic, Sandy Silt, Gravel, Peat.

▪ Soils can differ greatly over short distances.

▪ Many different soil types across one field.

What tools are available for

determining soil properties?
 Tools
S-Map Online
- Landcare Research National Data base covering
all areas.
- Can zoom down to general property level.
- Soil type, soil drainage, soil depth
- Printable report on likely soil types.

www.smap.landcareresearch.co.nz
Soil Moisture Mapping
EC, EM, OM.
How much water do soils hold?
▪ Can be specified in three ways
▪ Percentage by volume V/V(%)
▪ Depth in mm
▪ Soil tension (kPa)
▪ Rooting depth must be known

▪What is the most useful measure for irrigation?

▪What is the most useful measure for plants?

▪ Why?
 How much water do soils hold?
Saturation
Lost
through
Field Capacity drainage
Readily
Available Available
Water Critical Deficit
Soil Stress Refill Point
Survival Water Point MAD
Water
Wilting Point
Too
tightly
Oven Dry bound
 Plant Available Water
▪ Amount of water the soil can hold for plant roots
400mm
= Field Capacity – Wilting Point

▪ Described as percent or mm/100 mm

= mm water held by 100 mm of soil in root zone 600mm

▪ Actual amount available depends on root depth 900mm

 Tables
WHC
Soil class (mm/100mm)
Clay loam 17.5 - 19.0
Silt loam, no stones or gravel 15.5 - 16.5
Silt loams, approx. 30% gravel 11.0 - 12.0
Sandy loam 6.5 - 11.0
Sand 4.5 - 5.5
Determine effective root depth and adjust accordingly.
For soils with stones, adjust by percentage accordingly.
For soils with distinct layers, sum layers to effective root depth

From NZ CoP Design

Available
Soil Water
35 – 15 =
20mm/100m
m

Available
Soil Water
18 – 6 =
12mm/100m
m
Importance of Stress Point
Soil Moisture vs Yield loss
120 Yield
Yield stable
100 Loss
CROP YIELD %

80
60
40
20 Field Stress Wilting
Capacity Point Point
0
100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0
SOIL MOISTURE %

• Stress point the point where moisture use

costs yield as the plant has to burn more
energy to extract it.
 Calculating the RAW
Example [single simple layer]

Root depth of crop 400 mm

x Available Soil Water/100 mm x 20 mm/100 mm

= Available Water Capacity = 80 mm

ONLY HALF is Readily available / 2

Readily Available Water = 40 mm

Irrigate when 40 mm of water has been used by
the crop
 Calculating the RAW for a
known root depth
Example 2 [ two layers with stones]
Root depth of crop 600 mm
Layer 1 400mm with 20 mm/100 mm
20 x 4 = 80mm
Layer 2 200mm with 15mm/100mm with 25% stone
15 x 2 x 75% = 22.5mm

= Available Water Capacity = 102.5 mm

ONLY HALF is Readily available / 2
PAW = 51.25mm
Water Movement - it's not static!

Management Zone

Maximum Production

Maximum Return

Minimize Effect on
Inefficient Environment
Leads to
Nutrient Loss
$$$ water table
Water Movement
1. Runoff.
2. Drainage.
3. Evaporation.
4. Deep percolation.
5. Subsurface flow.
6. Transpiration.

How much water is lost?

Soil Water and How it Moves:
Infiltration
▪ Rate water moves into soil

▪ Maximum irrigation rate to avoid run-off

▪ Many soils have very low rates

▪ Hydrophobic soils (water repellent)

High organic matter
▪ Allophane clays
▪ Volcanic materials
▪ Compaction and capping reduce rates
Infiltration
 Permeability
▪ Rate water moves through soil
▪ Maximum irrigation rate to avoid water logging
▪ Capillary movement in micropores (slow)
▪ Gravitational flow in macropores (fast)
▪ Pans have very low (no) permeability
▪ Buried top-soils
▪ Cultivation pans
▪ Duripans
▪ Water moves down the profile as soil nears
field capacity
▪ Gravitational water moves through
macropores
▪ Capillary water moves through micropores
 Preferential Flow
• Occurs when the application rate is too high
• Water pours through worm holes and cracks
• Major contributor to leaching
Wetting Front Movement
Irrigation is Not Uniform

Ineffective

Inefficient
 Irrigation Demand
▪ Driven by:

▪ Crop type – rooting depth, crop factors Crop

water
deman
▪ Climate (rainfall and AET) d

▪ Soils – water storage for crops to use

Physical
and
irrigation
▪ Irrigation system type – application efficiency system
factors
▪ Allowable risk of not meeting demand
 Water Application
▪ You can only put in what the
soil can hold.
▪ You can only take out what
has been put in.
▪ You need to know how
much to put in.
▪ You need to know when to
put it in.
▪ The last part comes with
problems.
Crop Water Use Factors
Crop factor 0.1

Crop factor 1.0

 Climate

▪ Evapotranspiration
▪ Rainfall
 Evapotranspiration

▪ ET = evaporation + transpiration
▪ Potential evapotranspiration (PET)
▪ Actual evapotranspiration (AET)

Does evapotranspiration waste water?

 Actual ET
▪ PET is ET for 100 mm high healthy pasture that is not
under stress
▪ AET is related to the amount of water actually used by
a crop (pasture)
▪ AET = PET x crop factor
▪ For simplicity, think of it as actual crop water use.

What do you think affects AET? What makes it

higher? What makes it lower?
 Annual Volume

Annual volume requirements depend on:

▪ The sum of daily demands (which may be
limited by system capacity) over the
irrigation season
▪ Decisions around risk of losing production –
running out of water
Seasonal Demand

Peak Crop Use

 Average daily PET by Month
Average PET/Month
6

Month Cheviot Darfield ChCh Winchmore Timaru Waimate 5

September 2.1 1.8 2 1.7 1.8 1.7 4
October 3.1 2.7 3.1 2.7 2.9 2.7 3
November 3.9 3.5 4.1 3.5 3.8 3.6
2
December 4.4 3.9 4.8 3.9 4.4 4.2
January 4.5 4.2 4.9 4.1 4.5 4.3 1

February 3.9 3.6 4.1 3.6 3.8 3.6 0

March 2.9 2.6 3 2.5 2.6 2.5
April 1.9 1.5 1.8 1.4 1.5 1.3
May 1.2 0.9 1 0.8 0.8 0.7
Cheviot Darfield ChCh Winchmore Timaru Waimate
 Annual volume
▪ Be aware of the difference between annual
water use and annual allocation
▪ Consents specify annual allocation (and
conditions attempting to ensure efficient use)

What is the best way to determine

irrigation system capacity and annual
volumes?
Allocation Tools e.g. Irricalc
Irrigation System Capacity

Design system capacity (l/s/ha) depends on:

▪ Crop water demand
▪ Soil storage ability
▪ Decisions around risk of losing production
▪ The ability to physically apply water
▪ The efficiency of the applicator
 Design Parameters
• Do not use figures straight out of the paper.
• Do not subtract rainfall from ET on a monthly or
annual basis.
• Always use data derived from reputable daily water
balance models.
• Be sure that your client understands the risk profiles
and consequences of not meeting crop water demand.