Soil and Water
Soil and water resources in the central Arava region are limited and saline. Efficient water and nutrient use is indispensable to secure sustainability of rural agriculture in the region. Therefore, the department investigates efficient fertigation managements, which will increase the yield and quality of the crops on one hand, and on the other, reduce water and agrochemical inputs. The predicted reduction in the irrigation water salinity necessitates us to investigate for optimal water quality and quantities that will yield the highest profits.
The department is focused on 2 main research programs:
- Increased water use efficiency - In these studies, we develop optimal fertigation managements, which can be suitable under conditions of limited water resources and brackish water. Investigation of partial nighttime irrigation for efficient salt leaching; subsurface drip irrigation in melons; an optimization of drip spacing and discharge for various crops, etc.
- Crop response to environmental stresses - studies of water drought and salt stress, under hyper-arid region in several vegetable and fruit crops. These studies will allow us an integrative understanding for application of an optimal irrigation water quality and quantity that guarantees highest profits.
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Recent Reports
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Effect of irrigation treatments, soil type and root-zone infrastructure on pepper plants, 2010/11
Vegetables, Soil and WaterEffect of irrigation treatments, soil type and root-zone infrastructure on pepper plants, 2010/11
תחום או ענף ירקות
תאריך עדכון 23/2/2012Effect of irrigation treatments, soil type and root-zone infrastructure on pepper plants, 2010/11
Ityel Eviatar – Extension Service (Shaham), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development
D. Chashmonai, A. Oshoroviz, R. Offenbach, S. Cohen, Y. Zvieli, I. Tsabari – Central and Northern Arava R&D
Alon Ben-Gal – Gilat Research Center, Agricultural Research Organization, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development
Naftali Lazarovitch – Ben-Gurion University
E-mail address for correspondence: Eviatar@arava.co.ilThis work is a continuation of work carried out during previous seasons concerning the development of root-zone infrastructure for vegetable crops in the Arava. The reaction of pepper plants to the conditions prevailing in the root zone was studied within a range of different volumes of saline irrigation water (2.3 dSm-1) in two soils with extremely different hydraulic characteristics: rocky soil ('Hamada') with a low level of water conductivity and sandy soil, through which water flows easily. Pepper plants of the cultivar Adom (Efal) were transplanted into a screen-house (50 mesh) at the Yair Research Station in the Arava on 20 September 2010. These plants were treated with four different levels of irrigation from 21 days after transplanting through the end of the study. The levels of irrigation: 3.1, 4.4, 5.5 and 7.5 mm per day; were kept constant throughout the period of the study. At the end of the season, 194 days after transplanting, the total volumes of irrigation water that had been applied were 634, 771, 1071 and 1399 mm . In the two soils, we set up two types of root-zone infrastructure, which differed only in the type of side-sheeting used to separate the root zones from the surrounding soil. One treatment involved Palrig soil cover, which is permeable to water and oxygen, and the other treatment involved impermeable polyethylene. The treatment in which the polyethylene side-sheeting was used yielded 10% less than the Palrig treatment. Yield in the rocky soil was approx. 15% higher than yield in the sandy soil across all of the irrigation treatments. The level of irrigation had significant effects in the two soils. In the sandy plots that were irrigated with 4.4-5.5 mm/day, fruit yield increased by approx. 20%. In the rocky plots that were irrigated with 5.5-7.3 mm/day, yield increased by approx. 15%.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the Plant Board for helping to fund this study and Zeraim Gedera for their donation of seed. We also extend our heartfelt thanks to all those who participated in this work.שפה English
מלות מפתח Ben Gal
מחבר Ityel Eviatar, D. Chashmonai, A. Oshoroviz, R. Offenbach, S. Cohen, Y. Zvieli, I. Tsabari, Alon Ben-Gal, Naftali Lazarovitch
שנה 2011
שייכות yzvieli
תאריך יצירה 23/2/2012
תאריך עדכון 23/2/2012 -
Application of organic matter in trenches for pepper production
Soil and Water, Vegetables21
תחום או ענף ירקות
תאריך עדכון 23/2/2012Application of organic matter in trenches for pepper production
Shlomo Kramer – Field Service, Extension Service, Negev Region, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development
Shabtai Cohen, Rivka Offenbach, Yoram Zvieli – Central and Northern Arava R&D
Israel Zer – Moshav Paran
E-mail address for correspondence: shlomo@arava.co.ilDifferences in soil composition along the length of plots lead to non-uniform development of plants, which leads to variation in yield. In order to cope with this problem and obtain uniform crop growth throughout the plot, a trench is dug in the center of the plot. The trench is filled with homogenous material such as tuff, Perlite or stabilized organic matter. There are a number of different variations on this technique. Organic matter is the cheapest material, is easy to apply and also makes a significant contribution of a range of nutrients for the plants.
Two application methods were evaluated in pepper during the 2010/11 growing season at the Zer farm at Moshav Paran. This study evaluated trenches filled with organic matter (14 m3 per dunam) over which two lines of drippers were set out and very shallow “trenches” in which the same amount of organic matter was applied.
At the beginning of the season, the plants in the beds with the deeper organic matter-filled trenches were in poor shape relative to the plants in the beds in the shallow-trench treatment, apparently due to the salinity of the organic material. After two harvests, an absolute difference between the two treatments was observed in two different cultivars. In the shallow-trench treatments, cv. Tirza yielded 2 tons/dunam (=kg/m2) and cv. Imperio yielded 1.75 tons/dunam. In contrast, in the treatment with the deeper trenches, cv. Tirza yielded 0.85 tons/dunam and cv. Imperio yielded 0.23 tons/dunam. This difference persisted throughout the growing season. For cv. Imperio, the highest yields were 12 tons/dunam in the shallow-trench treatment and 10.4 tons/dunam in the organic-matter treatment. The cv. Tirza yielded 13.3-11.2 tons/dunam.
Soil analyses, which were carried out every three weeks, revealed a higher level of salinity in the 0–15 soil layer than in the 15–30 soil layer in both trench treatments. Levels of phosphorous and potassium were high throughout the season. In the organic matter-filled trench treatment, the level of nitrogen remained high at the end of the season. The electrical conductivity of the soil solution, which was assessed using partially automatic pumps, increased from early September through the end of October at depths of 15 and 30 cm and reached 4-5 dSm/meter. This is also the period during which the amount of water needed by the crop peaks and, apparently, the level of irrigation was not sufficient to fully rinse the accumulating salts from the root zone.
This experiment demonstrates the importance of using properly processed and stabilized organic matter to fill trenches that were not loosen-cultivated. The mixing of the organic matter in the trench with the soil, by shallow tillage, ensures proper, rapid crop development even when the organic matter has not been stabilized as well as it could have been or in situations in which time limitations force growers to plant shortly after organic matter has been applied to the trenches.שפה English
מחבר Shlomo Kramer, Shabtai Cohen, Rivka Offenbach, Israel Zer
שנה 2011
שייכות yzvieli
תאריך יצירה 23/2/2012
תאריך עדכון 23/2/2012
