Digital Commons Network^™

Use Of Effluent Volumes To Control Leaching In Nursery Container Crops With Tipping Bucket Sensors, Maureen Thiessen

LSU Master's Theses

Overirrigating container crops can lead to increased nutrient leaching and negatively impact water quality. Leaching is implemented to reduce substrate salinity. “Leaching fraction” (effluent volume/irrigation volume) has been described by best management practices to monitor irrigation efficiency. Recommendations and methods for controlling leaching fraction can greatly vary. Therefore, two studies were conducted to test the accuracy of attaining targeted leaching fractions compared to the accuracy of leaching targeted percentages of container capacity. In the first study, the effects of container size and substrate moisture content were tested on each method. Three container sizes of pine bark substrate at three moisture …