Irrigation
Mangoes can be grown in a variety of climates and are adaptable to different patterns of seasonality. The timing of key processes is determined by the climate, so understanding these regionally specific differences is the key to production management. Mangoes are grown in tropical, arid, desert and temperate climates across Australia.
Table 1. Types of climates where mangoes are grown in Australia and the corresponding irrigation requirement.
| Climate region | Irrigation requirement |
| Wet/dry tropics | Will not usually require irrigation during the wet summer season. Rainfall during this time is usually sufficient to allow tree growth and fertiliser uptake after the harvest period. Will require irrigation in the dry season to enable bud growth for flowering and subsequent fruit development. |
| Temperate | May require irrigation all year round, although should be managed depending upon rainfall. |
| Arid/Desert | It will require irrigation all year round. |
Water stress is a complicated topic in an irrigated crop. A lack of rainfall can trigger agricultural drought situations, as can poor irrigation management, high temperatures and/or low humidity creating increased plant water demand.
Some reference terms or critical factors that influence plant water stress and irrigation include:
- Soil (soil type, water holding capacity, soil chemistry)
- Water availability (rainfall, groundwater licencing)
- Water quality
- Environment (solar radiation, temperature, humidity, rainfall)
- Plant status (plant health, root health, nutrition, age, canopy structure, stage of growth)
- Orchard design (slope, variety, irrigation design, water monitoring equipment)
Best practices for effective irrigation
- Understand how water stress can affect your plants
- Understand your soil water holding capacity
- Understand your water quality and how that will affect your soil and irrigation infrastructure
- Understand and calculate your irrigation requirements based on evapotranspiration
- Ensure your irrigation system design suits your needs and has the capacity to meet the seasonal and peak water requirements
- Reduce the need for troubleshooting through regular maintenance etc
- A monitoring program should be used to schedule both the timing of irrigations and the volume of water to be applied. The movement of irrigation water in the soil profile should be monitored to ensure deep drainage is minimised
- Understand water availability now and into the future
- Calculating Distribution Uniformity - Factsheet from Water for Profit
- Flushing of Micro-Irrigation Systems - Factsheet from Water for Profit
- Chlorination of Micro-Irrigation Systems - Factsheet from Water for Profit
- Acid Treatments for Micro-Irrigation Systems - Factsheet from Water for Profit
- Chemigation / fertigation systems - Factsheet from NT DITT (also available in Vietnamese here)
Efficient crop water use and high yield potentials can only be achieved if the agronomic factors such as nutrition, disease and pest management are also optimised.
