NEW MEXICO CLIMATE CENTER

New Mexico Crop Information

Onion Water Production function or the relationship between Water applied or evapotranspiration (Et) and yield. Research conducted at Las Cruces, NM

Irrigation efficiency ranged from 80-85 percent at low yeild and 60-70 percent at high yield. Onions are shallow rooted and the drip system was burried with a large amount of water applied going to deep drainage.

Yield = -7809.23+693.5*water-applied -1.164*water-applied^2
Yield= -35300 + 1224.2 Et

The coefficient of determination is 0.90

Yield of onionse versus water applied (excluding rain) for the year 1994-1996

The reference for this work is M. S. Al-Jamal, T. W. Samm S. Ball and D. Smeal, 1999. Computing the crop water production function for onions. Submitted to Ag Water Managenment.