The objective of this work was to determine the effect of different cover crop mulches on the evapotranspiration of irrigated common bean cultivar Pérola. The experiment was carried out during two years, 2002/2003 and 2003/2004, at Embrapa Arroz e Feijão, in Santo Antônio de Goiás, GO, Brazil, on a Rhodic Haplustox, in a randomized block design, with four replications. In the first year, the treatments consisted of seven cover crops grown under no-tillage: Brachiaria brizantha cv. Marandu; corn (Zea mays L.) associated with B. brizantha; pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan (L.) Millisp); millet (Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br. cv. BN-2); Panicum maximum cv. Mombaça; sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench cv. BR 304); and Stylosanthes guianensis cv. Mineirão. In the second year, it was added another cover crop, Crotalaria juncea L. The evapotranspiration during the common bean cycle was determined using the field water balance methodology, and it ranged from 259.8 to 343.7 mm, depending on the cover crop and year. B. brizantha and P. maximum mulches, due to their highest dry weights, provided the lowest water losses through evapotranspiration. The highest differences among cover crops related to common bean evapotranspiration occurre in the initial and later stages of bean cycle.
Phaseolus vulgaris; soil water balance; drainage; neutron probe
