Experimental study on water movement of latosol under drip irrigation

To analyze water movement of latosol and provide foundation for dryland farming in Leizhou peninsula, the experiment of water movement of latosol under the conditions of indoor drip irrigation was investigated. The vertical and horizontal movements of water of latosol were tested under the drip flows of 0.5 L/h, 1 L/h and 3 L/h. The result indicated that the exponent relationships between the horizontal diffusion, vertical diffusion and drip irrigation time existed, and the horizontal and verticle diffusions of soil water were positively correlated with flow. Under the drip flows of 0.5 L/h and 1 L/h, the water movement could be divided into two phases of latosol: in the first phase, the speed of horizontal diffusion was greater than that of vertical diffusion, and the speed of horizontal diffusion was equal to the speed of vertical diffusion in the second phase. Under the drip flows of 0.3, 0.6, 0.9 and 1.2 L/h, the soil moisture contents at different locations and different depths were measured by using drying method. The relationship between soil moisture content and drip flow was analyzed. The results indicated that the appropriate drip flows were from 0.9 L/h to 1.2 L/h, and the time of drip irrigation was four hours for short-term and flat root crops.