Among the irrigated crops, the pineapple stand out for both its economic and social importance. It is a crop demanding in cultural practices, among which irrigation exercises strong influence upon the production and quality of fruits.The purpose of this study was to determine the values of the crop coefficients and evapotranspiration of the pineapple crop in Uberaba, MG. The experiment was conducted in the Fruit Crops Sector of "Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Triângulo Mineiro, campus Uberaba", MG. The cultivar used was Smooth Cayenne. Irrigation was carried out through driplines in two manners: buried and surface. For the estimate of the reference evapotranspiration (ETo), the Penman-Monteith equation was utilized and for obtaining the crop evapotranspiration (ETc), the soil water balance was used. Among the results, the highest value of evapotranspiration of the crop was about 6.8 mm; the values of mean ETc found when irrigation was performed with buried and surface driplines were respectively of 2.88 and 3.37 mm and when the irrigation was performed with surface and buried piping, respectively; the mean values of crop coefficient were of 0.97 (driplines buried) and 0.91 (driplines surface) for the entire cycle of the pineapple crop.
Ananas comosus (L.) Merril; irrigation management; Kc
