Water consumption in plants is the amount of water used by the plants in the process of transpiration and the amount of water evaporated at soil level. This is a both productive water consumption represented by the volume of water absorbed by the roots and a non-productive water consumption resulted from the amount of water lost through evaporation at soil level. To evaluate water demands in agricultural crops, they are represented as potential evapotranspiration that represents field perennial grass-covered soil water consumption. Optimal real evapotranspiration is the water consumed by cultivated plants allowing crops economically effective. Grain maize has a specific moderate water consumption but, given the long vegetation period, it is rather high. Maximum water demands in grain maize are during blooming and grain filling. We calculated monthly and yearly potential evapotranspiration and established hydro-climate and curve balance for the studied years; we also characterised them climatically by comparing monthly and yearly temperatures and precipitation with zonal ones. We also determined water consumption in grain maize at Sânnicolau-Mare (Timiş County, Romania) in the years 2013 and 2014 through indirect methods – the Thornthwaite method (the most common in the conditions of our country); the Lawry Jonson (an extremely quick method) and the Blaney-Cridle method. We could see, after analysing water consumption in grain maize, that, in the year 2013, total water consumption was the highest, ranging between 7990 m3/ha and 5130 m3/ha. In the year 2014, total water consumption was lower, ranging between 7820 m3/ha and 4935 m3/ha. The highest monthly water consumptions were in June, July and August in both studied years. In the same months, the necessary water supplied through irrigations ranged between 1790 m3/ha and 200 m3/ha in July and May, respectively. In the year 2014, water demand was lower than in the year 2013: 2580 m3/ha during vegetation and higher in August, 1170 m3/ha. The highest water consumption in grain maize was determined using the Balney-Cridle method, and the lowest one was determined using the Lawry-Jonson method. Therefore, we can draw the conclusion that we need to supplement through irrigations the necessary water in grain maize because it is not supplied by precipitations.

grain maize, evapotranspiration, total water consumption, monthly water consumption, mean daily water consumption

Presentation: oral