Irrigation best management practices for potato

Application of the principle of best management practices (BMPs) for potato irrigation maximizes economic use of resources while minimizing environmental disturbances. Potato is a shallow-rooted crop that responds negatively to variations in water supply. Reported research confirms the detrimental effects of small errors in irrigation management on potato production profitability. Potato water use has been thoroughly documented in the literature. Newer irrigation application and control technology is available to growers. Irrigation BMPs for scheduling irrigation by crop evapotranspiration (ETc) and soil water tension (SWT) are presented and discussed. In most cases only refinements of existing potato irrigation systems are needed; growers need to acquire some way to measure ETc or soil water, or preferably both, along with record keeping to track irrigation, ETc, and soil water. An increased increment of management applied to potato irrigation can return greater profits to potato growers while enhancing the sustainability of production by avoiding environmental degradation.