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Irrigation by crop

Irrigation for onion

Planted 15 × 10 cm, far too close for a drip lateral per row. Rain pipe or micro-sprinklers wet the whole bed — the method Telangana’s horticulture department lists for onion.

Suits it best

Rain pipe

Usual row spacing

0.15 m

Water need

3.5–7 mm/day

Water need is the crop’s daily use at full cover over Jan–Mar, at weather stations across Telangana and Andhra Pradesh — the spread is the season and the place.

Why rain pipe

Planted 15 cm apart, far too close for a lateral per row. Telangana’s horticulture department lists onion for micro-sprinklers; rain pipe does the same job of wetting the whole bed.

Rain pipe lines 5 m apart, each wetting a strip 5–6 m wide.

What actually changes the answer

  • Bulbing is when the crop uses most, and when uneven watering splits bulbs.
  • Stop irrigating 10-15 days before harvest so the necks fall over and the bulbs cure for storage.
  • Drip works too, on beds 1.2 m wide with one lateral to six rows — ask us if you want that layout priced instead.

How much pipe would onion need?

Put in your acres and the estimator works it out against this crop’s layout, then prices the parts from our own catalogue at today’s prices.

Estimate my system

What you’d be buying

Rain Pipe IrrigationLay Flat Tubes

Spacings and layouts on this page are published package-of-practice and state-scheme figures; water need is FAO-56’s crop-coefficient method on published Telangana and Andhra Pradesh weather records. Neither is a design for your field — soil, slope, water source and pump all move them. Send us your crop, acres and pump details and we’ll confirm the sizing before you commit.

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Where these numbers come from

  • PJTSAU (opens in a new tab)

    Telangana’s state agricultural university — the package of practices crop spacings in the state follow.

  • TNAU Agritech Portal (opens in a new tab)

    Crop-wise spacing, water requirement and drip layout references for southern India.

  • ICAR (opens in a new tab)

    Indian Council of Agricultural Research — crop agronomy and regional package-of-practices.

  • Telangana Micro Irrigation Project (opens in a new tab)

    The state scheme’s guidelines: which crops go on inline drip, online drip or sprinklers, and the spacings it funds.

  • FAO Irrigation and Drainage Paper 56 (opens in a new tab)

    The reference method for crop evapotranspiration and crop coefficients that daily water figures derive from.