Sprinkler water distributions as affected by corn canopy

A developing canopy has great potential to modify the distributions of water applied through overhead sprinkler irrigation system. The amount of water applied above canopy, throughfall, stemflow, and interception storage were measured using a water balance method during the growing season of sweet corn in northern China plains to evaluate the incorporation of corn canopy in sprinkler water distribution. A high variability of canopy interception storage with a coefficient of variation(CV) of 0.5 was observed in the experiments. The averaged interception storage for all measurements was 3.6 mm. The averaged throughfall and stemflow accounted for 45.4% and 43.0% of water applied above canopy, respectively. It was also found that both throughfal and stemflow increased linearly with sprinkler water applied. Water above-canopy, leaf area and plant height have little influence on canopy interception.