2. Material and methods
This study was conducted at the Experimental Farm of the faculty of Agriculture of
Mustafa Kemal University located in Hatay, Turkey (368390N, 368400E) during the winter
and spring seasons of 2000 and 2002. The experiment could not be carried out in 2001 due
to the destruction of excessive rainfall and flooding in April. The soil at the experimental
area has heavy texture and a very deep profile. Ground water is also characterized as very
deep profile. According to the approach of the Soil Survey Staff, Taxonomic classification,
the soil of the experimental field is classified as entisols-vertic xerofluvent (Kılıc¸, 1999).
Some physical and chemical properties of the experimental field soil related to irrigation
are shown in Table 1. Soils at the experimental site were clay-loam texture in 2000 and
loamy texture in 2002. The gravimetric method was used to determine the soil
moisture content. Soil samples for moisture content were obtained at 0.60 mdepth from the
middle row of every plot at each irrigation event one day before irrigation. The effective
root zone of potato crop was considered as 0.60 m. Hatay province has typical
Mediterranean climate conditions with hot–dry summers and mild-rainy winters. Some
important climatic data of Hatay province during the experimental periods are given in
Figs. 1 and 2.