The root system is responsible for water uptake and should be considered in irrigation water requirement calculations. The work had as objective to define papaya root distribution under sprayer and drip irrigation in a Tableland Coast Soil of Recôncavo Baiano. Two trenches were dug at different positions related to plants irrigated by sprayer and surface and buried drip irrigation. The lateral lines irrigation were set close to the plant row with two emitters per pant, each one at 0.40 m from plant. In case of sprayer, it was used one emitter per two plants located between two single rows. Root samples were collected from a grid of points in these trenches in order to cover a complete section of the root system. Roots were separated from soil material and digitized in a computer and the images were processed by a software that estimated the total root length and mean diameter at each position of the grid in the soil profile. Root system has occupied larger volume of soil under microsprinkler compared to under drip irrigation with larger root concentration in the direction of the emitter. The effective papaya root depth under surface or buried drip irrigation was 0.45 m and varied from 0.15 m between plant rows to 0.35 m between the plant and the emitter.
drip irrigation; buried drip irrigation; sprayer irrigation; root system
