Effect of sprinkler irrigation management and straw mulch on yield, water consumption and crop coefficient of peanut in sandy soil [electronic resource].

Includes references.

Field experiments were conducted at El-Bustan Agricultural Research Station, in summer season of 2013 on peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) variety Giza 5, to study the effect of sprinkler irrigation management and the application of rice straw mulch on yield, quality, water consumptive use and crop coefficient of peanut in sandy soil. Two irrigation treatments, (I₃) and (I₅) were imposed based on the soil water depletion to bring the soil water deficit to the field capacity at two irrigation intervals of 3 and 5 days. Mulching treatments were applied randomly during the 3-leaf growth stage for one half of the experimental area (M) at a rate of about 500 g/m2, while the other half remained bare (non-mulched, M0). The experimental design was split- plot with three replications and consisted of irrigation treatments in the main plots, mulching and non-mulching treatments as subplots. The results revealed that, higher yield and better crop growth were observed in the mulched plots as compared to nonmulched plots under the same irrigation treatments. Also, the effect of 13 treatment was more pronounced than the effect of Is treatments. The average values of maximum plant length, No. of pods/plant, pods weight/plant, total Bio-mass, 100 kernels weight ,total pods yield and total kernels yield, were 65.00 em, 39.45, 53.20 g., 4012.05 kg/fed, 67.10 g, 1658.80 kg/fed and 1176.00 kg/fed, respectively observed with 13M treatment. An increase in the tested quality parameters such as shelling percent, protein and oil percentage, of 8.9, 4.40 and 2.13%, respectively were obtained with 13M treatment as compared to the control treatment (13M0 ). The computed ET 0 value in course of the peanut growth season was 752.25 mm. 13M0 treatment had the maximum ETc and applied irrigation water (AIW) values of 2415.0 and 2952.60 m3/fed, respectively. Applying rice straw mulch conserved irrigation water by about 14.37 and 21.62% with 13 and Is treatments, respectively.-WUE ranged from 0.60 with 13M and IsM to 0.36 kg/m3 with lsMo treatment, meanwhile, IsM and 13M treatments had the maximum IWUE values of 0.48 and 0.47 kg/m3 'respectively. The maximum crop coefficient (Kc) value of 0.88 occurred during July, which was less than the generic value listed in FA0-33and-56 by about 16.2 and 10.2%, respectively, however the average Kc values of peanut at El-Bustan area of 0.73 was close to FA0-33 and-56 listed values. These results showed that precise management of the available soil moisture content ih the course of the growing season, and accurate estimation of ETc as well as, developing site and cultivar specific Kc value can be effective way for appropriate irrigation scheduling and water alloc,ation, saving water, maximizing yield and consequently optimizing the economic return.

Summary in Arabic.

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