Application of Gravity and Low Head Drip Irrigation Techniques in Solar Greenhouses

This paper summarized the experiences of using simple gravity drip irrigation techniques by farmers and proposed a variable and low-head drip irrigation system for reducing irrigation cost and improving irrigation efficiency in Chinese-style lean solar greenhouses. The relationship between water application and dripping time was presented for the system. Two kinds of drip discharge experiments under the low-head conditions showed that the emitter discharge is much more sensitive to low pressure than high-pressure. With decreasing pressure the discharge is evidently reducing. However, decreasing discharge only results in extending the dripping time instead of influencing water application uniformity.