2022 Volume 91 Issue 4 Pages 280-290
Yield of eddoe (Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott var antiquorum Hubbard & Rehder) is greatly reduced if sufficient irrigation is not provided during the summer due to its high water requirement. However, conventional manual irrigation systems require labor and a large amount of groundwater. Here we adapted an automated system of drip irrigation to eddoe cultivation in an attempt to reduce labor and irrigation water consumption and to examine the growth properties and ecophysiological responses. Common to all three years from 2018 to 2020, our drip irrigation managements maintained higher soil moisture content during the period after the end of the rainy season, resulting in the increased above-ground growth and dry matter production, tuber growth rate, and final tuber yield in the late growth stage relative to the no irrigation management. The eddoe plants grown under drip irrigation had higher root length, water uptake rate, leaf water potential due to higher pressure potential, which may contribute to the higher stomatal conductance, and photosynthetic rate during the drought after the rainy season. Our results suggest that soil water regulation by drip irrigation is effective for avoiding drought and yield loss of eddoe.
