Hydraulic evaluation of porous cups for suction irrigation systems

摘要

  The importance of reducing the amount of water used in irrigated agriculture intensifies the need to implement the use of methods of localized application of the liquid. With the objective of making more efficient the use of irrigation water we designed porous cups made from a clay soil collected in the locality of Sanare, Lara state, Venezuela. Mixes of ceramic slips were prepared as follows: slip alone (control, T0), slip+sand (T1), slip+starch (T2), slip+manure (T3) and slip+polyacrylamide (T4). Porous cups made from each of the previous mixes were evaluated for total porosity, hydraulic conductivity, and humid bulb, and potential matric. The highest porosity was obtained in slip+starch with 33.7 %, whereas the hydraulic conductivity was highest in the slip+sand treatment with 0.0139 cm?·h-1. The cups made from the slip+sand mixture had the highest wet bulb, both horizontally and vertically with 19.3 and 18.0 cm, respectively. The lowest matric potential at the cup limit was 16.0 cb in the slip+manure treatment. The materials used to manufacture the cups allowed the obtaining of appropriate hydraulic properties to consider these emitters as a promising alternative for adaptation to the suction irrigation systems.