Unit 7. Irrigation in Ecological Vegetable Gardening

1. ECOGARD
IO2: Training course on ecological vegetable gardening (ECVET
based) for the students with learning/cognitive disabilities
Unit 7. Irrigation in Ecological Vegetable Gardening
Supporting access to training and qualification of
people with disabilities through development of VET course on
Ecological Vegetable Gardening based on ECVET learning outcomes
2017-1-BG01-KA202-036212

2. What is Irrigation?
 Irrigation is the artificial application of water to the land or soil.
 It is applied to assist in the growing of crops.
 For more information: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amrCMakolKA
Burton, M. (2010). Irrigation management:
Principles and practices. Cabi.

3. Irrigation in the Past
 Farming was more focused on subsistence rather than selling products in the
market.
 Labour intensive
 İrrigated land used to be small
 Highly dependent on weather
 Inefficient
Burton, M. (2010). Irrigation management:
Principles and practices. Cabi.

4. Modern Irrigation
 More focus now on selling the output
 Machine intensive
 More sophisticated
 Rains are no longer the controlling force
 For more information: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTR2RgMbJ-g
Burton, M. (2010). Irrigation management:
Principles and practices. Cabi.

5. Different Types of Irrigation
• Surface
• Drip
• Center Pivot
• Sub-irrigation
Burton, M. (2010). Irrigation management:
Principles and practices. Cabi.

6. Surface Irrigation
 In surface irrigation systems the land is filled completely with water. In this
way crops like rice able to get ample amount of water.
 For more information: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ya5ikTKZgIo
Kay, M. (1986). Surface irrigation systems
and practice. Cranfield press.

7. Methods of Surface Irrigation
 Controlled amount of water is applied from the head ditch and guided by
corrugations, furrows, borders or ridges.
 Uncontrolled wild flooding
Disadvantages:
 Wastage of water
 Soil erosion
 Loss of minerals in soil
Kay, M. (1986). Surface irrigation systems
and practice. Cranfield press.

8. Drip Irrigation
 Also known as trickle irrigation
 Water is applied at the roots of the plants, drop by drop
 Most efficient and effective way of irrigation
 Drip irrigation method can be either high tech computerized or labor intensive.
Goldberg, D., Gornat, B., & Rimon, D. (1976). Drip irrigation:
principles, design and agricultural practices. Drip irrigation:
principles, design and agricultural practices.

9. Drip Irrigation System
For more information :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbSUntR29bw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPdAsZtuw34
Goldberg, D., Gornat, B., & Rimon, D. (1976). Drip irrigation:
principles, design and agricultural practices. Drip irrigation:
principles, design and agricultural practices.

10. Sprinkler
 Water is piped through different locations in the field and is then distributed
by high pressure sprinklers or guns.
 Sprinklers are mostly installed on permanent risers
 Some sprinklers which rotate are called rotors.
 For more information about sprinkler irrigation system:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHLdsyAQSKA
Kay, M. (1983). Sprinkler irrigation. Equipment
and practice. Batsford Academic and
Educational Limited.

11. Center Pivot
 Center pivot irrigation is a form of sprinkler irrigation.
 It consists of several minute segments of pipes which are joined together and are
supported by trusses, mounted on wheeled towers with sprinklers positioned along
its length.
 It moves in a circular pattern and is fed with water from pivot at the center of the
arc.
 For more information: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DE3tJzL-LT0

12. Dissadvantages of Sprinklers
 Costly to install
 Also large number of sprinklers have to be installed in a field because area
covered by a single sprinkler is not large.
 Center pivot is also extremely costly.

13. Sub-irrigation
 It has been used for many years where there is a lot of ground water available
 İt is method of artificially raising the water table to allow the soil to be moistened
from below the plants’ root zone.
 Advantages are water and nutrient conservation, and labour saving through
lowered system maintenance and automation
 İt is similar to surface drip irrigation system
 For more information: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0h3LAGpDE0
Burton, M. (2010). Irrigation management:
Principles and practices. Cabi.

14. Traditional vs Modern
 Traditional Method of Irrigation
 Inefficient as crops do not get
water properly
 Very cheap because there is no
installation cost.
 Labor intensive
 Modern Irrigational Technique
 Efficient because crops get
correct amount of water
 The best example is drip
irrigation system
 Extremely cost. A lot of
investment has to be made to
get a proper irrigational system
 Machine intensive
vs
Burton, M. (2010). Irrigation management:
Principles and practices. Cabi.

15. Why is everyone using modern
irrigational techniques in Eco-gardening?
 These days people prefer to use modern irrigational techniques (MIT) because
they are extremely efficient and effective
 Modern irrigational techniques are also pivotal in increasing the crop yield.
 Also since nowadays farming is done with the help of fertilizers, crops need to
have certain amount of water to grow properly.
 MIT should be used and promoted because they save a lot of water.
 For example: drip irrigation, if done properly can save up to 95% of water
 Also, MIT methods are important because of scarcity of water and increasing
demand for food crops
 MIT are also cost effective if done on large scale.
Burton, M. (2010). Irrigation management:
Principles and practices. Cabi.

16. Measuring water quality parameters for
suitability as Irrigation Water (IW)
 Electrical conductivity (EC)
 pH
 Sodium adsorption ratio or sodium hazard (SAR)
 RSC (Residual sodium carbonate)
 Boron Concentration
 Choloride concentaration
 Heavy metal concentration
Burton, M. (2010). Irrigation management:
Principles and practices. Cabi.

17. Quality Control of Irrigation Water
 Control of irrigation water should be carried out at least once a year.
 For best yield, it is recommended to be done every three months.
 For this purpose, the factors described below are controlled in irrigation
water.
 For more information https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogXN9z_vYHE

18. Factors/Parameters
 Salinity: if the total quantity of salts in the irrigation water is
high, the salts will accumulate in the crop root zone and affect
the crop growth and yield. Excess salt condition reduces uptake
of water due to the high concentration of soil solution.
 Permeability: some specific salts reduce the rate of infiltration
in to the soil profile.
 Toxicity: when certain constituents of water are taken up by
plans which accumulate in large quantities and result in plant
toxicity occurs and reduces crop yield.
 Miscellaneous: excessive Nitrogen in irrigation water causes
excessive vegetative growth and leads lodging and delayed crop
maturity. White deposits on fruits or leave may occur due to the
sprinkler irrigation with bicarbonate water.
Burton, M. (2010). Irrigation management:
Principles and practices. Cabi.

19. Measurement of Water Quality
 In Turkey, in order to determine water quality, you should apply:
 To the laboratories of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry founded in every
province of Turkey,
 To private certified laboratories, or for water
 To the university laborotaries situated in the districts where you live.
For more information:
 Calibration TDS, EC pH meter ;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wk0wmmgRgOg
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cTLnppmenw
 Measurements of TDS, EC, pH values;
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRh9K-PEAZk
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayUQkBf6waU
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9P01mR_1J4

20. Classification of irrigation water quality
Yaron, D. (Ed.). (1981). Salinity in irrigation
and water resources. CRC Press.

21. Yaron, D. (Ed.). (1981). Salinity in irrigation
and water resources. CRC Press.

22. Factors affecting suitability of water for
irrigation
 Chemical composition of water
 Total concentration of soluble salts or salinity (EC)
 Concentration of sodium ions in proportions to calcium and magnesium or
sodicity (SAR)
 Trace element boron may be toxic for plant growth if present in limits beyond
permissible
 The effect of salt crop growth is of osmotic nature. If excessive quantities of
soluble salts accumulate in the root zone the crop has extra difficulty in
extracting enough water from the salty solution thereby affecting the yields
adversely.
Burton, M. (2010). Irrigation management:
Principles and practices. Cabi.

23. Factors affecting suitability of waters
for irrigation
 Besides this, total salinity depends on the extent to which exchangeable
sodium percentage (ESP) of soil increase as a result of absorption of sodium
water. This increase depends on sodium percentage.
 Soil characteristics like structure, texture, organic matter, nature of clay,
minerals, topography, etc.
 Plant characteristics like tolerance of plants vary with different stages of
growth. The germinating and seedling stages are usually the most sensitive to
salinity.
 Climatic factors can modify plant response to salinity. Tolerance to salinity
after irrigation is often greater in winter than in summer. Rainfall is the most
significant factor for the leaching of salts from the plant root zone.
Temperature also plays a vital role.
 Management practices also play great role. Wherever saline water is used for
irrigation, adoption of management practices which allow minimum salt
accumulation in the root zone of the soil is necessary.
Burton, M. (2010). Irrigation management:
Principles and practices. Cabi.

25. Irrigation water quality management
 Whatever may be the source of irrigation water river, canal, tank, open well
or tube well some soluble salts are always dissolved in it.
 The main soluble constituents in water are Ca, Mg, Na, and K as cations and
chloride, sulphate bicarbonate and carbonate as anions.
 However ions of other elements such as lithium, silicon, bromine, iodine,
copper, cobalt, fluorine, boron, titanium, vanadium, barium, arsenic
antimony, beryllium, chromium, manganese, lead, selenium, phosphate and
organic matter are also present.
 Among the soluble constituents calcium, sodium phosphate, bicarbonate and
boron are important in determining the quality irrigation water and its
suitability for irrigation purposes.
 However other factors such as soil structure, permeability drainage type of
crop etc., are equally important in determining suitability of irrigation water.
Burton, M. (2010). Irrigation management:
Principles and practices. Cabi.

26. Why is irrigation water management
important in ecological gardening?
 Irrigation water
management is the process
of determining and
controlling the volume
frequency and application
rate of irrigation water in
a planned efficient
manner.
Burton, M. (2010). Irrigation management:
Principles and practices. Cabi.

27. References
 http://agricoop.nic.in/sites/default/files/ICAR_2.pdf
 Burton, M. (2010). Irrigation management: Principles and practices. Cabi.
 Kay, M. (1986). Surface irrigation systems and practice. Cranfield press.
 Yaron, D. (Ed.). (1981). Salinity in irrigation and water resources. CRC Press.
 Goldberg, D., Gornat, B., & Rimon, D. (1976). Drip irrigation: principles,
design and agricultural practices. Drip irrigation: principles, design and
agricultural practices.
 Kay, M. (1983). Sprinkler irrigation. Equipment and practice. Batsford
Academic and Educational Limited.
.

28. Thank you for your attention!
For more information:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v
=5RQU2V1CCAk

29. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION