Strategies for Taro (Colocasia esculenta) Irrigation

This study aimed to evaluate the taro (Colocasia esculenta var. São Bento), in response to different irrigation strategies. The experiment was carried out in 2015, at the Instituto Federal do Espírito Santo, Santa Teresa Campus, Brazil, at an altitude of 130 m above sea level. A drip irrigation system was installed, which was divided into subunits, to irrigate the plots individually, according to the treatments. The irrigation intervals established for each treatment were based on the water availability for the crop (F factor), which, in turn, was related to the soil water depletion. Thus, irrigation was performed when the water in the soil was depleted equivalent to 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50% of the total available water, respectively, for the treatments T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5, in a randomized block design, with four replications. Meteorological data were used to estimate the crop water demand, and the daily water balance was calculated using spreadsheets. We evaluated the applied water depth, the yield of commercial cormels and the water use efficiency by taro, due to the F factor. The results were submitted to analysis of variance and regressions. The increase of the F factor and the consequent application of light and frequent irrigation promoted the reduction of the irrigation depths and favored the taro development and yield, besides supporting the highest values of water use efficiency. Thus, these management conditions may be recommended for its cultivation.