Infiltration from a surface point source and drip irrigation: 1. The midpoint soil water pressure

Bresler [1978] proposed a procedure for drip irrigation design which is focused on the midpoint soil water pressure hc. We present a practical field test of this approach in order to evaluate the validity of the underlying assumptions. The simulated hc values were obtained from Raats' [1971] steady state theory for 32 points in the field where the hydraulic conductivity parameters Ks and αwere measured. The hc values were measured at the same locations during microirrigation of a maize crop. Measured hc's appear to be lower than the simulated ones, especially late in the season. The measured spatial variability in hc appeared to be higher than the simulated ones. This could well have been caused by root uptake activity, which is not considered in the analysis, as well as by the large but typical drippers spacing of d = 1.00 m. Thus the tensiometers could have been beyond the practical limit of wetting. Consequences for design and management are important. For design, even if a high hc value is chosen, there is no real guarantee that the wetting would be effective at the midpoint. For irrigation management, tensiometer placement too far from the dripper would lead to overirrigation, so for a large dripper spacing d, the midpoint placement is not judicious.