Irrigation practice and water usage characteristics in sand dune upland fields in the Hokuriku Region, with much rainfall in Japan: case studies on watermelon and Japanese radish

We investigated the use of irrigation water for a successive planting of watermelon followed by Japanese radish in a sand dune area in the Hokuriku Region. The main results were as follows: (1) Upland field tested in the study used a large volume of irrigation water in spite of its location in the Hokuriku Region where rainfall was plentiful. Notwithstanding this, frequent irrigation was considered necessary. (2) Watermelon was cultivated as a Spring–Summer crop with a mean cultivation period of 102 days, during which it was irrigated for 59 days at 1.7-day average intervals with an irrigation volume of 7.1 mm/watering and a total irrigation volume of 428 mm over its entire growing season. The amount of rainfall during the period was 604 mm during 42 days of rainfall. Soil moisture levels in the upland field were kept at relatively high values ranging between pF1.3 and pF1.5 at 15-cm depth with frequent irrigation during no-rainfall period. (3) Japanese radish was cultivated as a Summer–Autumn crop with a mean cultivation period of 71 days during which it was irrigated for 39 days at 1.9-day average intervals with an irrigation volume of 9.4 mm/watering and a total irrigation volume of 358 mm over its entire growing season. The amount of rainfall during the period was 376 mm during 29 days of rainfall. Frequent irrigations were used to maintain the soil moisture levels in the upland field within the range of pF1.4–pF1.6 at 15 cm depth. (4) During the irrigation period, the amount of water used for irrigation was 5.9 mm/day in watermelon and 6.1 mm/day in Japanese radish which are greater than evapotranspiration (ET). In addition, during pre-irrigation, the preparation of the seeding bed can be carried out at the right time which contributes to producing high-quality Japanese radish in adequate quantity. In addition, pre-irrigation for preparation of bed for watermelon transplanting is very important for better time management and high-quality production. For this purpose, the irrigation facilities need to be functioning very well.