Two experiments were carried out at the Universidade Federal de Santa Maria (Brazil), in summer 2000 to compare the growth and development of tomato and cucumber seedlings using irrigation methods of overhead, ebb-and-flow and floating. Sowing was done in polyestyrene trays with 128 cells, filled with 20 mL of peat and containing 9 mL of water in each cell. For the ebb-and-flow and floating methods, reservoirs with 0.80 m width, 1.70 m length and 0.10 m depth were constructed on the soil surface. In the ebb-and-flow method, water was drained out of the reservoir just after each irrigation, while in the floating method trays floated on the water surface till the end of experiments. In each experiment, the three methods were compared as treatments, using three sets of two trays for each treatment, placed side by side. Two identical experimental set-ups were used to test concomitantly the same treatments on tomato and melon seedlings. Periodically destructive measurements were made to determine shoot and root dry matter, plant height and number of leaves. Shoot growth and development of tomato and melon seedlings were higher in the ebbandflow method.
Lycopersicon esculentum; Cucumis melo; dry matter; number of leaves
