ANALYSIS OF WATER BALANCE TO DETERMINE WATER REQUIREMENT OF PINEAPPLE (Ananas comusus L. MERR.) IN PINEAPPLE PLANTATION LAMPUNG, INDONESIA

Abstract

Irrigation on pineapple plants is very important because it affects the growth and production, but the irrigation cost is very expensive. But before planning irrigation needs to estimate water requirement of the plant. This study is to estimate water requirement of pine plant using simple water balance based on 30-year climatologic data. The results show, 30-year data of climatology data can be used to estimating water requirement of the pineapple plant. Water requirement for small plant, medium plant and big plant are 164.6mm, 31.2mm, and 12.5mm respectively for June-October. The peak of the deficit on water balance occur in August, which is pineapple plant need intensive irrigation.