Evaluation of irrigation in roses in a suitable substrate with three water depths and the percentage of drainage

Abstract

The municipality of Facatativa, where the research was carried out, is located in the Bogota Plateau (Department of Cun-dinamarca), an area specialized in the production of flowers that, along with other producing regions of the department, represent around 72% of national production. Establishing the amount of water and the time of application is a key factor that contributes to obtain the quality and production required, according to the requirements in commercial crops, such as rose. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of three irrigation depths on Rosa sp. Vendela variety in substrate (80% toasted rice husks and 20% compost), based on evapotranspiration and percentage of drainage, in a greenhouse in the Bogota Plateau. The experiment was conducted in two crop cycles during 2014. The production and quality of the harvest were evaluated with three irrigation depths: Control treatment (T1) with 100% of the crop’s evapotranspiration (ETc) and drainage percentage (% D), T2 and T3, equivalent to 80% and 65% of T1, respectively. Irrigation was applied as follows: 15.04, 12.39 and 10.35 m 3 per bed were applied for two cycles in T1, T2 and T3, representing a reduction of 17.6 and 31.2% for T2 and T3, respectively, compared to the control treatment. The production of floral stems, the bud diameter and length did not have significant differences (P<0.05) according to the Duncan test; however, T1 had the highest number of stems. The length and diameter of the stem, the crop coefficient Kc and water use efficiency (WUE) presented significant differences between the treatments. The growth curves showed a continuous increase, which fit the logistic model.