Note: 275
November 2007
Citrus Irrigation
Helen Ramsey, Department of Agriculture and Food, Waroona
Irrigation is one of the most important factors in producing
a good yield of quality citrus. Irrigation scheduling,
knowing how much water to put on and when, has a
direct impact on tree health as well as fruit yield, size
and quality. Without correct irrigation scheduling your
orchard is more susceptible to nutrient deficiencies,
physiological disorders, pests and disease.
Correct irrigation scheduling requires an understanding of:
• how much water can be held in the crop root zone
• how much water the crop uses each day
• how much water the irrigation system applies.
Shallow root system
Citrus have a shallow root system. If you dig a hole
under the canopy of your tree in an area watered by
your irrigation system, you will see a mass of fine roots.
Figure 1: Soil pit showing the root zone of a citrus tree. Here the roots
are restricted by a clay layer.
Important Disclaimer
The Chief Executive Officer of the Department of Agriculture and Food and the State of Western Australia accept no liability
whatsoever by reason of negligence or otherwise arising from the use or release of this information or any part of it.
For more information visit our web site www.agric.wa.gov.au
Dig a little deeper and these fine roots are replaced by
larger structural roots. It is the mass of fine roots, known
as the effective root zone, that takes up the majority of
water and nutrients used by the tree.
It is important to aim irrigation at the effective root zone,
minimising the amount of water leaching past. For citrus,
the effective root zone is usually in the top 30 to 40 cm,
depending on the soil type.
How much water can the root zone hold?
The amount of water that can be held in the root zone and
thus available to the tree varies with the irrigation system,
soil type, depth of the effective root zone, and proportion of
stone or gravel in the soil. Farmnote 198 Calculating Readily
Available Water explains the steps involved in calculating
how much water can be held in the effective root zone.
Examples of water holding capacity
Both trees in the example below are the same size (9 m2
canopy area) growing in a hedge row in a loam soil. The
root-zone depth of both trees is 30 cm. One tree is irrigated
with two drippers, the other with a fully overlapping micro
sprinkler system. The tree irrigated with two drippers has
only 34 litres of readily available water. The tree irrigated
with the fully overlapping sprinkler system has a much
larger volume of readily available water (189 litres). The
more soil you wet within the rootzone of your crop the
greater the volume of readily available water.
DRIP IRRIGATED TREE SPRINKLER IRRIGATED TREE
9m2 CANOPY AREA 9m2 CANOPY AREA
SPRINKLER
DRIPPER
30cm LOAM SOIL
ROOT
ZONE
17L 17L 189L
DEPTH
WETTED AREA
Figure 2: Example of water holding capacity
Daily water requirements
There is good correlation between plant water
requirements and evaporation. Citrus trees use
approximately 70 per cent of evaporation. If evaporation
is 10 mm the trees will use 7 mm of water from the soil
root zone volume.

Daily water use (mm) = Evaporation (mm) x 0.7

A sprinkler system that irrigates the under canopy

area evenly with a known application rate can be used
to schedule irrigations by replacing water used as
described above. For drip irrigation systems, where only
a portion of the under canopy area is watered, it is best
to calculate daily water requirements in litres.
Converting water use from mm to litres
To convert millimetres water use to litres, multiply daily Figure 3: Measuring canopy size
water use in millimetres by the canopy ground area.
Tables 1 and 2 below show the average daily irrigation
requirements of citrus trees in litres for different canopy
Daily water use (L) = Evaporation (mm) x 0.7 x
sizes in Wokalup and the Upper Swan. Note: figures
Canopy Ground Area (m2)
have been rounded. Average evaporation rates were
taken from the Bureau of Meteorology website
Water use is proportional to the area of exposed leaf,
which relates to the area of land covered by the canopy.
Imperial mandarins
Calculate canopy ground area in m2 by measuring the Varieties with narrow upright growth habits such as
horizontal dimensions of the canopy. Example: If the Imperial mandarins will require slightly more water
trees are growing in a hedge and the canopy areas are than that calculated according to canopy ground area.
touching, multiply the tree spacing by the average width Use the above calculations as a base and finetune the
of the row. If the canopies do not touch, work out the schedule using soil moisture monitoring devices.
area as a circle.

Table 1: Average daily water requirements in litres per tree per day – Wokalup

Average monthly Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Evaporation (E) → 9 8.6 6.8 4.3 2.7 2.1 2.1 2.5 3.2 4.4 6 7.8
Average Daily Irrigation
Requirement (L/ tree)

Small Tree
1 m2 canopy 6.5 6 5 3 2 1.5 1.5 2 2.5 3 4.5 5.5
(E x 0.7 x 1 m2)

Medium Tree
9 m2 canopy 57 54 43 27 17 13 13 16 20 28 38 49
(E x 0.7 x 9 m2)

Large Tree
16 m2 canopy 101 96.5 76 48 30 23.5 23.5 28 36 49.5 67 87.5
(E x 0.7 x 16 m2)

Table 2: Average daily water requirements in litres per tree per day – Upper Swan

Average monthly Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Evaporation (E) → 9.9 9.1 7.3 5 3.1 2.5 2.5 2.6 3.3 4.8 6.7 8.5
Average Daily Irrigation
Requirement (L/ tree)

Small Tree
1 m2 canopy 7 6.5 5 3.5 2.5 2 2 2 2.5 3.5 5 6
(E x 0.7 x 1 m2)
Medium Tree
9 m2 canopy 62.5 57.5 46 31.5 20 16 16 16.5 21 30 42 53.5
(E x 0.7 x 9 m2)
Large Tree
16 m2 canopy 111 102 82 56 35 28 28 29 37 54 75 95
(E x 0.7 x 16 m2)
Scheduling irrigations
To schedule irrigation, compare the amount of water
available in the crop root zone with the tree’s daily water
requirement. If the daily water requirement exceeds the
amount of water that can be held in the root zone, you
will need to irrigate more than once a day. If the soil can
hold more than the daily water requirement there is an
option of irrigating when the available water is depleted
(this may be every second or third day), daily or several
times a day.
DRIP IRRIGATED TREE
9m2 CANOPY AREA
DRIPPER
30cm
ROOT
ZONE
17L 17L
DEPTH
WETTED AREA
Figure 4: Comparing daily water requirement with water holding capacity
Scheduling example
Using the example pictured above, on an average day
in January in the Upper Swan area these trees would
require 62.5 litres of water per day. The drip-irrigated tree
would require two irrigations per day, one in the morning
and one part-way through the day. The sprinkler-irrigated
tree would require irrigating every third day.
Rainfall
Rainfall during the irrigation season may reduce the irrigation
requirement of your trees. Rainfall events greater than 5 mm
should be factored into your irrigation schedule. Not all rain
that falls is available to be taken up by your trees; some is
lost to run-off, drainage below the root zone, or interception
by leaf litter or mulch. If rain exceeds the amount of water
that can be held in the root zone only consider the amount
of water that can be held in your irrigation schedule; the
remainder will be lost to drainage. Keep a close eye on soil
moisture during dry winters and in spring as the soil can
quickly dry out if there is insufficient rainfall or irrigation.
SPRINKLER IRRIGATED TREE
9m2 CANOPY AREA
SPRINKLER
LOAM SOIL
189L
Soil moisture monitoring
It is best practice to use a combination of evaporation
replacement and soil moisture monitoring when
scheduling irrigation. Monitoring tools give a picture
of what is happening in and below the crop root
zone, allowing for more informed irrigation scheduling
decisions. There is a wide range of devices available so
be sure to match your chosen tool’s capabilities with
your requirements.
Irrigation pointers
• Where drip irrigation is used, you may need to
irrigate more than once a day to meet peak water
requirements. If the drip system drains out after each
irrigation, break the irrigation down into the longest
pulses possible to reduce losses to drainage.
• Redesign the irrigation system if the wetted area is
too small (limiting) and pulsing is not an option. To
perform pulse irrigation efficiently, a non-draining
drip system is required.
Further reading
Farmnote 198 Calculating Readily Available Water
Farmnote 206 Soil Texturing
Farmnote 196 Converting Readily Available Water (mm)
to litres for drip systems
Farmnote 35/1990 Evaluating sprinkler and trickle
irrigation systems
Farmnote 26/1990 Soil moisture monitoring equipment

• Sprinkler irrigation systems cannot be used for pulse Average monthly evaporation figures can be found on the
irrigation. Short pulses of sprinkler irrigation do not Bureau of Meteorology website at www.bom.gov.au
penetrate deep enough into the soil resulting in high
evaporative losses.
• Check the uniformity of the irrigation system at the
beginning and throughout the irrigation season.

2045-12/07-ID8456 ISSN 0726-934X

© State of Western Australia, 2007