Orchard Irrigation and Soil Management Practices

Contents: Preface. I. Orchard irrigation: 1. Importance of orchard irrigation. 2. Factors affecting irrigation requirement of fruit crops. 3. Determining irrigation requirement. 4. Surface irrigation system. 5. Sub-surface irrigation system. 6. Overhead irrigation system. 7. Precautions of irrigation. II. Orchard soil management practices: 1. Concepts of orchard soil management. 2. Management without growing any extra plant (clean culture). 3. Management by growing economically important plants (crop culture). 4. Management by growing soil-conserving plants (cover-cropping). 5. Management by growing grasses (sod-culture). 6. Management by green manuring. 7. Management by soil coverage (mulching). Appendix: 1. Botanical names of plants referred to in the text. 2. Irrigational particulars. 3. Conversion factors. Index.

Although there exists a number of books providing procedural details on scientific husbandry of the various fruit crops grown in India, separate titles covering elaborate discussions on the principles of fruit culture befitting to this country are inadequate. While considering the gap, the present text has fundamental aspects on the principles of fruit culture, which are orchard irrigation and soil management practices, the pertinence of which to gain expertise on fruit crop husbandry needs no emphasis. The title has aimed at presenting the subject in a clearly understandable from to meet the requirements of the post graduate and the advanced level of under graduate students of horticulture in India for preparing them to take up studies on the husbandry of fruit crops in a critical manner, besides providing practical informations to the fruit growing personnels in this country. (jacket)