The aim of the study was to estimate water requirements of strawberry nursery grown under protected conditions. Strawberry mother plants were cultivated in pots filled with a mixture of peat and coconut substrate. The plants were irrigated by a drip system. Watering frequency was controlled by a developed prototypical weight-based irrigation scheduling system. This system enabled automatic control of irrigation depending on actual plant water requirements. The results showed usefulness of the developed system for scheduling the irrigation of strawberry. The obtained data on irrigation frequency and water application rates provided information on actual evapotranspiration of strawberry nursery (ETr). Reference evapotranspiration (ETo) was calculated using Grabarczyk equation on a basis of temperature and air humidity data. Having both ETo and ETr values made it possible to calculate crop coefficient (Kc) for strawberry nursery. Kc varied from 0.05 in February (just after planting the mother plants) to 0.62 at the end of cultivation period (before harvesting the plantlets). ...
