Clogging is a serious problem in trickle irrigation. Usually, this obstruction may cause decrease as well as increase of its discharge, but the water distribution uniformity of system always decreases due to clogging problems. These problems can be reduced by application of chlorine and acids. This work aimed to evaluate application of three concentrations (treatments) of sodium hypoclorite (50, 100 and 150 mg L-1 of free chlorine, T1, T2 and T3, respectively) with four applications in order to recover Netafin-Ram 17 emitters that presented average discharge greater than the nominal one, due to clogging caused by irrigation with water presenting 1.7 mg L-1 of total iron during two years. The recovery of nominal discharge and the water distribution uniformity of the emitters were evaluated. The emitter nominal discharge was 2.3 L h-1. The mean discharge decreased gradually in all the concentrations with the increase in number of applications. The best results were obtained in the concentrations of 150 mg L-1, in which the nominal flow was attained.
obstruction; iron; uniformity; drip irrigation
