This study was carried out in the seedling production units belonging to CAF (Santa Barbara Ltda - Agro-forestry Company), in the Municipal districts of Dionísio and Martinho Campos, Minas Gerais, from July 2004 to December 2006. The objectives of the study were to determine the water needs of eucalyptus seedlings, evaluate the irrigation systems and present alternatives for irrigation management and proposals for optimization of water consumption. This study carried out the assessment of water consumption in the nursery and evaluations of the irrigation systems for determination and adaptation of the operation conditions by measuring pressures, flow rates, depth of irrigation and uniformity of water distribution for each sector. The water consumption in the studied forest nurseries is high, reaching 592 m3 d-1 for the production of 12 million seedlings a year. The two nurseries showed great potential for reduction in water consumption though. In the mini clonal-gardens, the excess volume drained by drainage canals is approximately 200 L d-1, about 40% of the total applied. In the evaluations of uniformity, a large variation in CUC values was found for the tested hoses, alternating between values considered as either unacceptable or excellent. The growing and hardening areas are responsible for approximately 70% of the total water consumption in the nursery, this sector suffers more than 80% in losses. Another experiment was set up to determine the crop coefficient (Kc). ETo was estimated by using an Irrigameter in the interval between two consecutive irrigations, and the daily value measured by the Penman-Monteith method. Etc was considered as the water depth applied by the sprinklers for the treatment that provided the best seedling development. In this way, the efficiency of irrigation was included in the determined coefficient. It was found that the application of approximately 257% of the reference evapotranspiration is needed for a good development of seedlings. The use of the Irrigameter showed a great potential for systems of high irrigation frequency, such as forest nurseries. The effect of addition of a hydroabsorbent polymer on the physical characteristics of the substrate as well as the interaction with different irrigation depths were evaluated on the development of eucalyptus seedlings in tubettes. Hydrogel mixed with the substrate increased the water retention capacity up to the dose of 8 g dm-3. The maximum increase was approximately 33%. The use of hydrogel had no effect on rooting and showed great potential for seedling production. Highest plants were obtained with the combination 500 mg of Hidroplan-EB with 12 mm irrigation depth. In an experiment with six different substrate mixtures, the greatest potential for water reduction was found for substrates with higher retention capacity. However, these substrates had lower capacity of aeration, which could affect the potential for rooting and harm the initial development depending on the greenhouse management. Seedling development was influenced by the rooting phase, when there was no water differentiation. However, under the smallest depth (7.6 mm d-1), the symptoms of water stress were more severe for the treatment with standard substrate.
