Backyard Orchard News
If you are interested in growing pomegranates while maximizing water and nitrogen use efficiency, you may want to register for a meeting that will be held at Kearney on October 2, 2014.
Individuals interested in growing pomegranates with surface or subsurface drip irrigation are invited to attend a meeting at Kearney Agricultural Research & Extension Center (KARE) on October 2, 2014, to learn about improving pomegranate fertigation and nitrogen use efficiency. To attend, a reservation made with Diana Nix at 559-46-6500, extension 0, is required.
The field day will share the results of a fertigation study at KARE that uses high frequency drip and subsurface drip irrigation/fertigation systems. Check in is at 9:30 am, presentations start at 10:00 am, and the tour of the research plot begins at 11:00 am. The meeting will adjourn at noon.
The agenda includes:
- Introduction, objectives, orchard configuration and operation
- Evapotranspiration, crop coefficient and lysimeter management
- Yields, water use efficiency, and nitrogen use efficiency
- Soil matric potential measurements and hydraulic gradient calculations in the subsurface drip irrigated lysimeter
- Tissue responses to high frequency injected nitrogen at three levels of nitrogen
- Canopy cover and leaf chlorophyll measurements
- Conclusions and questions
For additional information, please contact Kevin R. Day, UC Cooperative Extension advisor in Tulare County, specializing in fresh-shipping deciduous tree fruits, cultural practices and production, fruit growth and development, pruning and training systems, at 559-684-3311, or Claude J. Phene, President of SDI Plus, at 559-298-0201.
Freshly harvested pomegranates in a bin.
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