This experiment was carried out at campus II of Patos de Minas University Center (Centro Universitário de Patos de Minas (UNIPAM) in Patos de Minas, MG, during the year of 2005, with the purpose of evaluating the yield of the common bean plant, cultivar Talismã, submitted to different levels of irrigation water replacement, as well as determining the optimum economic water height and the time to withhold the irrigation. The treatments consisted of five levels of water replacement in soil (40%, 70%, 100%, 130%, and 160%) as a function of daily raising the height to the field capacity and three periods of irrigation withholding (0, 7, and 14 days after reaching the R9 stage of the cropping cycle). A microsprinkling system was used for irrigation. The experimental design was a RBD (randomized blocks) with a factorial scheme of 5x3 with four blocks. The crop yield and the physical and economic optimum heights were evaluated. The crop yield was affected by the levels of water replacement in the soil (there was an increase of yield up to 100% replacement with further decrease) and by the time of irrigation withholding except in the replacement of 100%. The water heights and yields, which afforded the maximum economic efficiency, were 589.97 mm and 3205.76 kg ha-1 (R9), 535.72 mm and 2874.26 kg ha-(R9+7) and 575,84 mm and 3242.73 kg ha-1 (R9+14).
Irrigation management; production function; optimum economic water height
