What is "Application Efficiency" when using catch cups?

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ryeguy

August 21, 2018 17:00

If I want to dial in my precipitation rate for all my zones by using catch cups and setting each zone's precipitation rate, what would I put for Application Efficiency here? It's not clear to me how that's measured or if this is something only relevant if using a spec sheet.

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  Rolando Soto August 22, 2018 08:36

  Hi

  You can use the uniformity instead however it is recommended to have Your zone as uniform as possible.
  The reason is simple: if your zone has low uniformity the irrigation would be done by the lowest one thus You'll have parts over and other parts underirrigated.

  So make sure from the nozzles setup (some nozzles permit individual setting of pressure) and placement to have the zone as uniform as possible and than 90-100% can be used (0.9-1) as efficiency since the cups are collecting the real amount of the water dropping on Your zone (over spray etc. will not count in the cups so the losses are disregarded by the method itself)

  It's important to not have losses due runoff (cup can hold 100 mm of water in 10 minutes while Your soil might not) so check it during irrigation. If You notice runoff, either use auto cycle and be sure the soil type is accurate to force enough soak time and cycle, either use manual cycles to divide the irrigation into more sections.

  To see how uniformity is measured You can check this doc:
  http://aces.nmsu.edu/pubs/_h/H510.pdf 
  or simply search after catch cup test uniformity on Google.

  Best Regards,
  Brown

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