Abstract:
Water is an important factor for all plants and different irrigation methods are practiced
when and where necessary to assure the crop growth and development. Irrigation through
rain water harvesting is not common in Sri Lankan tea lands at present. However, the
need of any kind of irrigation is increasing in tea lands, especially when adapting to
climate change. Therefore, the current study was conducted to identify a new rain water
harvesting method using stem flow of Tea (Cammelia sinensis), Albizia (Albizia
mollucana) and Gliricidia (Gliricidia sepium) at St. Joachim Estate, Ratnapura (6° 44’ N,
80° 21’ E) from October to December 2019. 20 Tea at same age, 2 Gliricidia and an
Albizia were subjected to measure the stem flow. The selected Tea were TRI 2021, TRI
2027, TRI 2023 and TRI 2026 cultivars. Polythene gutters were fixed for each selected
plant according to their diameter of the stem base and leak seal glue was applied over
those areas using thumb tacks. Then 5 L plastic cans for Tea, 10 L clay pots for Gliricidia
and 45 L plastic barrel for Albizia were placed at the end of each gutter to collect the stem
flow. Collected water in each container was measured using a standard measuring
cylinder. Daily rainfall data were collected from the Agro- meteorological station of the
Tea Research Institute, Ratnapura. Finally, collected data were statistically analyzed using
correlation coefficient procedure. The highest stem flow recoded from Albizia (10.978 L)
while Gliricidia and Tea collected 2.8 L and 1.25 L, respectively under 11.1mm rainfall.
Therefore, there is a feasibility to make use of this stem flow of water of Albizia to
irrigate some tea plants.
Keywords: Micro irrigation, Rain gutters, Rain water harvesting, Stem flow, Tea
