Innovative irrigation scheduling for peanuts via the use of advanced technology in Alabama, Florida and Georgia

The objective of this project was to evaluate the performance of VRI and the UGA SSA in Georgia. The irrigation experiment was carried out during the 2017 growing season in a peanut field located at Leary, Ga. The center pivot of the field was equipped with VRI technology. Before planting the VRI system was tested for uniformity to ensure it was evenly and adequately applying irrigation. After realizing that the pivot and the VRI system were working properly the field was divided into Irrigation Management Zones (IMZs) by using field properties such as soil electric conductivity, elevation data, hydrology data, historical aerial images of the field and satellite images. The IMZs were delineated by using UGA's EZZone software. After IMZ delineation, the field was divided into eight alternating conventional irrigation and dynamic VRI strips. In four of the eight strips, irrigation scheduling was based on the Irrigator Pro soil temperature scheduling recommendations and the irrigation water applied uniformly. The other four strips were irrigated individually based on UGA SSA recommendations. After planting, UGA SSA sensors were installed in each of the IMZs. Additionally, we installed several tipping bucket rain gages close to the nodes to evaluate the VRI system performance and understand how fast the UGA SSA nodes respond. During the 2017 growing season the UGA SSA website was checked every morning to create prescription maps. The field was harvested on approximately I 0/18/17.