The study was carried out in a vegetable production unit in Itabaiana, Sergipe state, Brazil, with coriander crop from August 2nd to October 12th, 2011. The objective of this study was to determine the evapotranspiration and single and dual crop coefficients of coriander grown in tropical environment. The dual coefficient was obtained following FAO nomenclature. The crop evapotranspiration was obtained based on soil water balance and reference evapotranspiration by Penman-Monteith method (FAO-56), using the data of air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and solar radiation from automatic weather station next to the experimental site. The coriander crop coefficient values for the growth stages: initial, development, mid-season and late season are, respectively, 0.82; 1.03; 1.07 and 0.93. Results also indicated that the dual crop coefficient approach can provide accurate estimates of water requirements for coriander growth in tropical environment. The water requirements of coriander based on soil water balance and the dual crop coefficient method are, respectively, 332 and 348.7 mm.
Coriandrum sativum; water balance; water requirement; soil water content
