Alleviating of Water Deficit in Eggplant by Two Different Mulches

Abstract

E GGPLANT (Solanum melongena L.) is one of the drought-tolerant vegetable crops, however, recently climate change has had a devastating impact on crop cultivation in many parts of Iran. The present research aimed to investigate the application of date straw mulches (DSM) and plastic mulches (PM) on yield and morphological and physiological characters of the plant under different crop water requirements. A split-split plot experiment using an RCB design with three replications in Rodan, Hormozgan, Iran at 2017. The three levels of crop water requirement (CWR), i.e. 40, 70, and 100%, the two levels of DSM (i.e. control and DSM), and the three levels of PM (i.e. 0, 100, and 120 cm in soil depths), were allocated in the main, sub and sub-sub plots, respectively. The results of the analysis of variance revealed that the triple-interaction effects of the DSM, PM, and CWR were statically significant for all traits (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01). However, none of the simple and interactions effects were not statically significant for leaf length and width. The results revealed that 40% of CWR reduced the yield by 49% compared with 100% CWR. Also, the application of the DSM and PM alleviated the deleterious effects of water deficit. Finally, the application of the mulches is recommended for eggplant in areas affected by water shortages.

Response to Drought Stress of Three Snapdragon (Antirrhinum majus L.) Cultivars

“…Drought is one of the most common critical environmental factors that affect the production and growth of numerous horticultural plants and field crops worldwide (Sanjari et al, 2021 andRodan et al, 2021). Climate change has diverse effects on the quantities of light, precipitation, temperature, and other climatic factors, negatively impacting plant performance in several regions of the world.…”