Effect of Treflan Injection on Decline of Emitter Clogging by Roots of Two Grass Species under Subsurface Drip Irrigation

The emitter clogging by crop roots is a main problem for using subsurface drip irrigation system in an arid area under water stress condition. The goals of this study were to investigate the effect of treflan injection for preventing of emitter clogging by grass roots in subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) and the effect of these treflan on the visual quality of two grass species. The experiment was conducted in a factorial experiment according to completely randomized block design with three replications from 2012 to 2013. The experiment included three levels of treflan contain 0 (C0), 100 (C1) and 300 (C2) mg net Treflan per emitter per year, and two grass species of Festuca (F) and Brmudagrass ( B). The results showed that the injection of Treflan into SDI system decreased roots around the emitter outlet and consequently no emitter clogging was observed. Root penetrate and severe clogging problem was more for Brmudagrass in compared to Festuca. The results showed after two growing seasons there was no emitters clogging in high Treflan level injection. Also, increasing the concentration of treflan up to 300 mg per year per emitter had not effect on the visual quality of grass species. Due to the importance of environmental protection, it is recommended to use a high-tech emitter and dripline for subsurface drip irrigation with no or lower herbicides injection to prevent clogging of the emitter.