EFFECT OF DISCHARGE RATE AND INTERMITTENT WATER APPLICATION BY POINT-SOURCE IRRIGATION ON THE SOIL-MOISTURE DISTRIBUTION PATTERN

A comparison was made between the results of laboratory and field experiments regarding predictions of soil moisture distribution from a point source on the one hand, and those theoretically calculated by a computer simulation model on the other hand. A good agreement was found between computed and experimental data. When the verified model was used for predictions regarding soil water distribution under point-source irrigation, it was found that when the same total amount of water (12 liters) was added to the soil with a 2, 4, or 8 liters/hour continuously applied trickle source, a loss of 26% of the total amount applied was affected below the 60 cm depth after 12 hours. The initial water content of the soil was adjusted to the field capacity value.