EVALUATION OF THE WATER REQUIREMENTS FOR A GREENHOUSE TOMATO CROP USING THE PRIESTLEY-TAYLOR METHOD

Héctor Valdés-Gómez^{1, 2}*, Samuel Ortega-Farías², Mauricio Argote²

ABSTRACT

The Priestley-Taylor (PT) model was evaluated for estimating the real evapotranspiration (ETreal) of a drip-irrigated greenhouse tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) crop. The net radiation incorporated in the PT model was estimated using meteorological variables. For this experiment, an automatic weather station (AWS) was installed inside the greenhouse to measure solar radiation (Rgi), net radiation (Rn), air temperature (Ta) and relative humidity (RH). Another AWS was installed over a grass cover to measure atmospheric conditions outside the greenhouse. The experiment was carried out at the Panguilemo experimental station (35°23' S, 71°40' W, 110 m.a.s.l.) from August to December 2000. The PT model was evaluated using the ETreal obtained from the water balance (WB) method. In this case, values of ETreal by PT model were calculated using: a) Rgi and soil heat flux (G) = 0; b) Rgi and G ≠ 0; c) solar radiation measured outside the greenhouse (Rge) and G = 0; and d) Rge and G ≠ 0. For these cases, results indicated that PT model was able to compute ETreal with errors less than 5%. Also, Rn was calculated with a relative absolute error and a mean deviation lower than 6% and 0.07 mm d^-1, respectively, using Rgi or Rge. Daily soil heat flux values equal to zero did not affect the calculation of ETreal values. Thus, the PT model evaluated in this study could be used for scheduling irrigation for a greenhouse tomato crop, using internal measurements of air temperature and relative humidity, and external measurements of solar radiation. In this case, PT model predicted the ETreal with an error of 6.1%.

Key words: irrigation, Lycopersicon esculentum, model, crop coefficients, net radiation, soil heat flux.