Growing Degree Days to Estimate Crop Development Coefficient in Potato at North Mexico

Air temperature has increased due to global warming, growing degree days (GDD) use the air temperature for its estimation. Among the methods for estimating GDD, the exponential, physiological, residual, and modified sine methods are significantly similar, but the gradual method is the best option to estimate GDD. Climate variation prompts us to have climate-based models that use GDD to create crop development model. With five agroclimatic stations in locations were sowing potato. With agroclimatic stations estimate Eto is the reference evapotranspiration mm/day and ETr is the crop water consumption in the soil with water content sensor in kPa, gravimetric water content (Pw), with soil’s bulk density to obtain the volumetric content (θ) with the depth of soil water sensor at two depths (15 and 30 cm) to estimate daily consumption in mm/day. If kc = Etr/Eto, the kc is related daily to GDD, the best model estimated was third-degree models with R2 values greater than 0.90, the estimation of GDD with the models are highly significant. This contribution will allow us to estimate the crop coefficient (kc) by measuring temperature and relating it to the reference evapotranspiration (ETo) from agroclimatic stations, in order to determine the water consumption of the potato crop. Therefore, the models for every agroclimatic stations are suitable for climate variation.