The Effect of Different Alternate Furrow Irrigation Methods on Water Uptake and Nitrate Leaching in Corn Cultivatio

Various methods of fertilization and irrigation in furrow method should be evaluated and managed in order to increase efficiency, reduce evaporation, leaching and deep percolation. One of these deficit furrow irrigation methods is partial root zone drying. So, the purpose of this study was to investigate the distribution and absorption of water and nitrate, nitrate leaching and water use efficiency of Every Furrow Irrigation method (EFI), variable Alternate Furrow Irrigation method (AFI) and Fixed alternate Furrow Irrigation method (FFI). For this purpose, corn (S.C. 704) was planted on early May 2016. In order to apply different irrigation methods, 12 furrows with a width of 70 cm and a length of 40 m were selected and divided into three treatments. Samplings with three replications were made at 1, 3, 5 and 9 days intervals after each irrigation at 10, 30, 50 and 70 cm below the surface of soil in dry and wet furrow. Results showed that the amount of water and nitrate absorption in EFI, AFI and FFI methods were 0.198, 0.178 and 0.143 (m3-water/m3-soil×30day) and 0.0022, 0.0018 and 0.0011 (mg/kg), respectively. Also in FFI method nitrate accumulation was occurred under the dry furrow. Water application efficiency in EFI, AFI and FFI methods was 51%, 81% and 77%, respectively. Finally, the AFI method with the least amount of leaching was chosen as the preferred method.