EFFECTS OF FERTIGATION MANAGEMENT ON EMISSION UNIFORMITY AND CLOGGING OF ON-LINE EMITTERS

A field experiment was conducted to study the effect of fertigation components on emission uniformity and emitter clogging. The effects of two types of emitters with two discharges (2 and 4 l/h normal emitters, 2 and 4 Lh-1 Pressure compensated (Pc) emitters) and six fertilization treatments (No fertilization as control, humic acid, ammonium nitrate, ammonium sulfate, mix two of humic acid and ammonium nitrate and mix two of humic acid and ammonium sulfate) were undertaken in this experiment. For all fertilization treatments, the emission uniformity (EU %) significantly decreased while emitters clogging ratio (CR %) increased with increasing number of fertigations which where periodically applied throughout the 180 days season. The 4 Lh-1 discharge emitters resulted in less clogging than the 2 Lh-1 emitters. Clogging problems obtained with the Pc emitters was less than those of normal emitters. The applied fertilization treatments increased the clogging ratio at the end of the season compared with no fertilizer treatments (F0) under both types of emitters at both discharge rates of 2 and 4 Lh-1. Finally, the maximum clogging ratios i.e. 29.42% and 28.72% at the end of 180days season were recorded for the plots received ammonium sulphate (S) and humic acid+ ammonium sulphate (H+S) fertigation respectively, up on using normal type emitters of 2 Lh-1 discharge.