ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Agron.
Sec. Field Water Management
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fagro.2025.1686668
Modeling Soil Water Dynamics to Optimize Blueberry Irrigation in Sandy Soils
Provisionally accepted
- Michigan State University, East Lansing, United States
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Drip irrigation is widely adopted in high-value crops such as blueberry to improve water application efficiency. Efficient water management is particularly important because blueberries are typically grown in sandy soils with shallow root systems. Moreover, increasing climate variability in blueberry-growing regions has further complicated irrigation scheduling. This study aimed to optimize drip irrigation system design and management practices using the HYDRUS-2D model. Field soil moisture and environmental conditions were monitored during the 2024 growing season in Michigan using a Sentek Drill & Drop soil moisture sensor installed at nine depths within the root zone. The collected data were used to calibrate HYDRUS-2D to simulate soil water distribution under drip irrigation. Calibration results showed strong model performance, with Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) > 0.93, Index of Agreement (IA) > 0.98, and Root-Mean-Squared Error (RMSE) < 0.03 cm³/cm³. Four numerical experiments were conducted in HYDRUS-2D to optimize drip system parameters: (1) irrigation system type (single vs. double drip lines), (2) emitter spacing (15, 30, 45, and 60 cm), (3) irrigation duration (0.25, 0.5, and 1 hour), and (4) emitter flow rate (0.98 and 1.89 L/h). The optimal configuration for efficient water application and minimal leaching consisted of a single drip line with emitter spacing of 45–60 cm, a 0.5-hour irrigation duration, and a flow rate of 1.89 L/h. Results indicated that higher emitter flow rates improved soil moisture availability within the root zone for both single and double-line systems. However, extending irrigation duration to 1 hour significantly increased the risk of percolation below the effective root depth, especially in sandy soils. Future research will evaluate alternative modeling approaches and validate this methodology under diverse soil and climate conditions to enhance robustness. Overall, findings demonstrate that the HYDRUS-2D model is a reliable and effective tool for optimizing drip irrigation design and management in blueberry production systems, helping improve water use efficiency and reduce deep percolation losses under variable climatic conditions.
Keywords: water efficiency, Drip system, Water distribution, Irrigation scheduling, precisionirrigation
Received: 15 Aug 2025; Accepted: 21 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Tucker, Yazdanpanah, Rai, Vander Weide and Dong. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Younsuk Dong, dongyoun@msu.edu
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