Camelina Sativa Water Use and Irrigation In An Arid Enviroment.

The demand for biofuel crops is rapidly increasing in the U.S. and elsewhere. In arid regions, renewable fuels could potentially be produced by crops such as Camelina sativa, a biodiesel-producing oilseed crop, which grow with reduced water and nutrient inputs and on lands that are marginable for food crops. However, limited agronomic information is available for camelina grown in arid environments, particularly on its water use characteristics and yield response to irrigation. The primary objective is to present evapotranspiration and crop coefficient characteristics for camelina obtained from a two-year irrigation field experiment in Maricopa, Arizona. The paper also evaluates the crop’s seed and oil yield responses from different irrigation scheduling regimes and nitrogen levels and the crops seed yield responses. Camelina (cv. Robinson) was grown from January to May in 2008 and in 2010 in field plots, each 10 by 17 m. Thirty-two of the plots were included in a replicated randomized split-split-plot design consisting of two irrigation scheduling methods, two levels of soil water depletion (45 and 65%), and two levels of seasonal applied nitrogen (72 and 108 kg N ha^-1). In six additional plots, higher level soil water depletion (85%) and less N were imposed. Weekly soil water content measurements were obtained over a soil profile of 1.9 m for all plots using neutron probes. Seasonal irrigation applied plus rainfall for plots ranged from about 330 mm to 510 mm over both experiments. Treatment seed yields ranged from about 600 to 1800 kg ha^-1.