Irrigation
M. Khoshravesh; M. Pourgholam-Amiji; F. Emami Ghara
Abstract
Introduction
Considering the value of water in agriculture and the limitation of this important and vital resource and the existence of intermittent droughts in the country, saving in consumption and optimal use of available water seems necessary. Today, utilizing saltwater is considered one of the ...
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Introduction
Considering the value of water in agriculture and the limitation of this important and vital resource and the existence of intermittent droughts in the country, saving in consumption and optimal use of available water seems necessary. Today, utilizing saltwater is considered one of the practical and effective approaches to minimize water consumption while achieving acceptable economic performance. Given the scarcity of freshwater sources, the utilization of unconventional water for strawberry cultivation holds significant economic importance. Through the application of innovative technologies, such as magnetic technology, the modification of these water sources can lead to increased quantitative and qualitative yields of agricultural products. Salinity stress, which alters the water and nutrient absorption patterns, directly impacts the plant's yield in terms of both quantity and quality. Strawberry is an important commercial product, and the quantitative and qualitative increase of its yield is emphasized from different aspects. The purpose of this research is to the effect of salinity stress under the influence of a magnetic field on the yield and yield components of the strawberry plant.
Materials and Methods
The purpose of this research was to investigate the effect of salinity stress under the influence of magnetic fields on the yield and yield components of strawberry plants. The factorial experiment was conducted in the form of a randomized complete block design with three replications in 2021 and 2022 in Neka city. The control treatment included full irrigation in all stages of plant growth with normal water (non-magnetic). The treatments include the type of irrigation water at two levels (Non-Magnetic Water (W1) and Magnetic Water (W2)), and water salinity was at three levels (0.86 dS/m (S1), 20 mM sodium chloride (S2), and 40 mM sodium chloride (S3). The strawberry plant of the Silva cultivar was cultivated in 3 x 4-meter plots with a row spacing of 40 cm and a between the spacing of 40 cm. Magnetization of irrigation water was created by passing water through a permanent magnet with a magnetic field intensity of 0.3 Tesla. The salt used for salinity stress was laboratory sodium chloride. The used irrigation method was drip (tape), and the amount of irrigation water and irrigation cycle was done according to the needs of the plant. Soil moisture monitoring was used to calculate the amount of applied water.
Results and Discussion
The results of analysis of variance showed that the effect of the irrigation water type and different levels of water salinity on the length, diameter, number of fruits per plant, fruit weight, biomass and plant yield was significant at the 1% probability level. The effect of water salinity on the number of fruits per plant was significant at the 1% probability level and on the fruit length and fruit diameter at the 5% probability level. The interaction effect of irrigation water type and water salinity was also significant at the probability level of 1%. On average, during two years of strawberry cultivation with the application of a magnetic field, the length, diameter, number of fruits per plant, fruit weight, biomass, and plant yield were increased by 9.76, 14.14, 23.05, 27.60, 27.08, and 28.36% respectively. The introduction of 20 and 40 mM sodium chloride resulted in a decrease in the physical characteristics of strawberry fruit and overall yield. The most significant reduction was observed in the number of fruits per plant at the salinity level of 40 mM sodium chloride, exhibiting a 56.69% decrease compared to the control treatment.
Conclusion
The growth of population and expansion of agriculture on one hand and the demand for more harvesting from limited water resources on the other hand, make it necessary to increase water productivity. Lack of water and competition for water resources has caused research to be done in order to reduce water consumption and preserve its resources. Therefore, searching for ways to reduce consumption and preserve water resources is of great importance. One of these methods is using magnetic water. The results of the research showed that the use of magnetic water technology caused a significant increase in the yield and yield components of strawberries compared to the control treatment. In addition, the salinity level of irrigation water had a significant impact on the yield and yield components of strawberries, with the highest yield observed in the treatment without salinity stress when using magnetic water technology. The findings of this study indicate that the application of magnetic water technology can enable the use of low salinity levels and lead to improved strawberry yield.
A. Kiani; A. Hezarjaribi; T. Dehghan; M. Khoshravesh
Abstract
Introduction: Water scarcity is one of the major problems for crop production. Using drip irrigation as an effective method in the efficient use of water is expanding in arid and semi-arid regions. One of the problems in under pressure irrigation during use of saline, unconventional and waste is emitters ...
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Introduction: Water scarcity is one of the major problems for crop production. Using drip irrigation as an effective method in the efficient use of water is expanding in arid and semi-arid regions. One of the problems in under pressure irrigation during use of saline, unconventional and waste is emitters clogging. There are several ways to prevent particle deposits in pipes and clogging of emitters. Generally, conventional methods are divided into two categories: physical and chemical methods. In physical method, suspended solids and inorganic materials are removed using particles sediment sand and disc filters. In the chemical method the pH drops by adding acid to water resulting in the dissolution of carbonate sediments. With chlorine handling, organisms (i.e. algae, fungi and bacteria) that are the main causes of biological clogging are destroyed. However, the application of these methods is not successful in all cases. It has been observed that the emitters have gradually become obstructed. Magnetic water is obtained by passing water through permanent magnets or through the electromagnets installed in or on a feed pipeline. When a fluid passes through the magnetized field, its structure and some physical characteristic such as density, salt solution capacity, and deposition ratio of solid particles will be changed. An experimental study showed that a relatively weak magnetic influence increases the viscosity of water and consequently causes stronger hydrogen bonds under the magnetic field.There exist very few documented research projects related to the magnetization of water technology and its application to agricultural issues in general and emitter clogging in drip irrigation method, in particular. This technology is already used in some countries, especially in the Persian Gulf states. This research was designed and implemented aimed at increasing knowledge about the application of magnetic technology and its effects on emitters clogging in the drip irrigation system.
Materials and Methods: A field experiment was carried out in 2011 in Gorgan Agricultural Research Station to study emitter clogging in drip irrigation using magnetic, non-magnetic and acidic water under salinity condition. The geographical location of the farm was 36° 55′ N, 54° 25′ E and 13.3 m above mean sea level with annual rainfall 400-450 mm. The experiment was laid out with a split plot in a complete randomized block design with three replications. The treatments included three treatments of the management of emitters clogging including, magnetized water (M), non-magnetized water (N) and acidic water (A) plus using three water quality levels namely, well water (S1), saline waters 7 (S2) and 14 (S3) dS m-1. Two methods were simultaneously used to magnetize water. In the first method, an electromagnet was installed around the sub-main pipe before the flow of water to the laterals. The amount of power required to magnetize the irrigation water was 0.03 kW-h of electricity per m3 of water. In the second method, the permanent magnets (ceramic magnets) were installed around the sub-main pipe before the laterals. In the second method the power requirement was 0.3 Tesla. To assess the emitter clogging, discharge and its variations as a function of time, emission uniformity, uniformity coefficient, and coefficient of variation were estimated and analyzed.
Results and Discussion: The results of variance analysis showed that the effect of different irrigation management in irrigation system (N, M and A treatments) and different levels of water quality on all parameters were significant. Statistical comparison showed that in all cases there were no significant differences between magnetized water and non-magnetized water treatments. However, acidic water was statistically different from the two types of water mentioned. Both magnetic and conventional indices were examined in this study. However, no significant difference was observed. But in all cases, using magnetic water is advantageous compared with using non-magnetized water. The overall results have shown that the use of magnetized water in this study, in the non-saline water condition, does not offer a relatively higher advantage compared to the use of non-magnetized water.
Conclusion: For saline water, insignificant differences were observed between magnetic and non-magnetic water treatments, however magnetic water was slightly preferable. Most of the indicators that were assessed showed that acid water treatment was significantly different from magnetic and non-magnetic water treatments. Thus, acid water treatment is not preferable. Emitter clogging with increase of time and the salinity level of irrigation water increased; the greatest difference between the treatments occurred in S3 and the last irrigation treatments. Magnetic water up to salinity level of 7 dS m-1, had no effect on the flow rate and thus on the emitter clogging. However, when using saline irrigation water and also with the increase of time, emitter clogging in magnetic water treatment was lower compared with non-magnetic treatment.
Keywords: Emitters clogging, Magnetized water, Saline water
