Effects of Mulching Soil on Water Consumption, Yield, Fruit Quality and Water Use Efficiency of "Canino" apricot (Prunus armeniaca L.) Cultivar

Abstract

The present work was conducted at El-Kanater Horticultural Research Station on Canino apricot trees during 2016 and 2017 growing seasons to study the effect of different irrigation regimes (irrigation at both 25 and 50 % of available soil moisture depletion) under mulching treatments; (black polyethylene plastic, white plastic and rice straw mulching) on evapotranspiration, water use efficiency, vegetative growth measurements, yield and fruit quality beside economic studies were also done. The most important results can be summarized as follows: Water consumption use (WCU) was increased in the case of frequent irrigation at 25 % of available soil moisture depletion (I 1) value which was found to be 4137.4 and 3206.9 m 3 /fed. in both growing seasons, respectively. Regarding mulching treatments, the values of the water consumption use were increased under both no mulching and rice straw mulching compared with either black plastic or white plastic mulching. Also, black plastic, white plastic and rice straw mulching generally led to increase (WUE) by 81.1 %, 55.6 % and 32.2 % over the un-mulched treatment, respectively in both seasons and Kc values as compared to unmulched treatments. Moreover, all investigated fruiting parameters (fruit set %, tree yield either as kg or as No. of fruits per tree, ton/fed and yield increment % as compared to the control) were significantly increased as a result of using mulching treatments in comparison with the control. It is quite clear that, leaf N, P and K contents were increased by using both black polyethylene plastic and white plastic mulching treatments in most cases as compared with control. Concerning the economic study, data indicated that, all mulching treatments were resulted in the higher values of profit per feddan as compared to the control treatment. Moreover the pest effective treatment in this respect was mulching with black plastic during both seasons of study. In general, it could be concluded that, both mulching treatments either with black polyethylene plastic or white plastic were most effective. shine (hour); S.R= solar radiation (cal/ cm 2 / day). RF = rainfall (mm / month).[Data were obtained from the agro meteorological Unit at SWERI, ARC] Water consumption use (WCU): Water consumption use or actual evapotranspiration (ETc) values were calculated for each irrigation treatment using the following formula (Israelson and Hansen, 1962). Where: WCU= seasonal water consumption use (cm). Θ2= soil moisture content after irrigation (on mass basis, %). Θ1= soil moisture content before irrigation (on mass basis, %). Bd= soil bulk density (g/cm 3). D= depth of soil layer (15cm each). i= number of soil layer.

Soil Surface Crust: Its Significance, Types and Mechanics of Formation. A Review

“…Recent studies have tended in many countries around the world to search for new means and methods to improve soil structure, organic carbon and moisture conservation by making use of the remains of previous crop (El-Naggar et al, 2018) or adding agricultural residues and animal waste (Fan and Wu, 2020) and adding some low-cost natural rocks as phosphogypsum or lime (Borselli et al, 1996 andAl-Nasser andAl-Khalid, 2020) to improve soil health and its sustainability (Choudhury et al, 2014, Opoku-Kwanowaa et al, 2020.…”