Moisture in plant cultivation is one of the most important factors along with light and nutrients, as such irrigation amount and frequency needs to be adequately regulated for the plant's strong growth and development. However, for most cultivators it is very difficult to regulate the amount and frequency of irrigation leading to many to give up cultivation.
Not only that moisture needs to be supplied in relation to various internal and external factors of the plant. For external factors temperature, humidity, light strength, wind conditions, seasonal environment, and for internal factors water requirements of the plant, culture soil type, filing method need to be considered. As such it is very difficult to set a standard for and quantify irrigation amount and frequency.
The present study was carried out to investigate the effect of irrigation amount and frequency on plant growth of Monstera adansonii.
A total of 48 numbers ofMonstera adansonii were planted in pots with the substrate structure and were cultivated from 15th July to 17th September 2022 in a greenhouse which has about 70% shade from direct sunlight. All of the plants were treated with four different amounts of water (4.8L, 3.6L, 2.4L and 1.2L) and 3 types of irrigation frequency (once a week, twice a week and thrice a week).
The experiment confirmed that in irrigation amounts of 0.8L~1.2L, 20% of excess moisture was discharged, at 1.2L~1.6L 50% was discharged and at 1.6L~4.8L 70% was discharged. Also despite being administered up to 4 times the water amount and water tension was only -0.5 kPa, which leads to the conclusion that watering around 1.2L is more advantageous in many ways compared to higher amounts of watering. Also it was confirmed that dividing the number of watering frequency was more advantageous than collective irrigation. Nevertheless, as mentioned before water requirements of the plant, culture soil type, atmospheric environment and seasonal circumstances all have to be taken into account when deciding watering frequency. In conclusion, this experiment confirmed that irrigating 0.4L of water every 2~3 days was most advantageous for Monstera adansonii growth based on the summer season when it is most productive.