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A Greenhouse Line-Source Sprinkler System for Evaluating Plant Response to a Water Application Gradient¹

Field line-source sprinkler systems have been used successfully for evaluating water deficit effects on crop production, evapotranspiration, and soil salinity relations. This field system produces an irrigation pattern that is uniform along the length of a field plot and continuously—but uniformly—variable at right angles to the sprinkler line. In plant improvement applications it is sometimes desirable to have year-round screening capabilities and precise control over environmental conditions so that selection pressures can be duplicated from cycle to cycle. The objective of this study was to design, construct, and evaluate a greenhouse linesource sprinkler system for examining seedling response to a continuous water gradient.

The greenhouse installation is similar in principle to the field line-source system except that one spray nozzle moves along a fixed track located above a greenhouse ground bed. The spray nozzle was operated at 3.3 MPa pressure and provided a uniform gradient in water application. This greenhouse system was reliable and inexpensive; it can be used year-round and adapted for use with seedlings and mature plants. The greenhouse line-source technique may have value for use in plant selection programs and in a variety of drought-related research studies.

Key Words: Drought resistance • Variable irrigation • Water relations • Medicago sativa L. • Alfalfa

² Plant physiologist and research geneticist, USDA-ARS, Crops Research Laboratory, Utah State Univ., UMC 63, Logan, UT 84322: professor, Agricultural and Irrigation Engineering Dep.; research geneticist, USDA-ARS: research associate, Range Science Dep.: and graduate student, Agricultural and Irrigation Engineering Dep., Utah State Univ.

Received for publication May 18, 1981.

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