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Irrigation by crop

Irrigation for tomato

Grown on raised beds in paired rows with one drip lateral down the middle of each bed. Steady water through fruit set is what keeps the fruit from cracking.

Suits it best

Drip irrigation

Usual row spacing

0.6–0.9 m

Water need

4–6.5 mm/day

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

Why drip irrigation

Paired rows on raised beds with a lateral down the middle of each — steady water at fruit set, dry paths for picking.

Inline drip laterals 1.5 m apart, one down each raised bed.

What actually changes the answer

  • Beds 1.2 m wide with a 30 cm path, plants in two rows 60 cm apart: one lateral per bed, 1.5 m apart, about 2,700 m of pipe an acre.
  • Uneven watering — dry, then a flood — is the usual cause of cracked fruit and blossom-end rot.
  • Most drip tomato is fed through the same lateral; TNAU publishes a fertigation schedule for it.

How much pipe would tomato 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

Drip IrrigationLDPE Pipes

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.