TY - SER AU - Abd EI-Mageed,Taia A. AU - Semida, Wael M. AU - Abd EI-Wahed, Mohamed H. TI - Effect of drip deficit irrigation and mulching on soil salinity, yield and water use efficiency of squash (Cucurhita pepo L.) KW - Irrigation KW - Soils, Salts in KW - Squashes N1 - Year book of Misr Society of Agricultural Engineering : The 20 th. Annual Conference of the Misr Society of Agricultural Engineering "Agricultural Engineering and Country Challenges"; Includes references N2 - Yield and water-use efficiency ofsquash (Cucurbita pepo L.) under drip deficit irrigation and mulching were investigated Field experiments were conducted for two consecutive seasons (summer and fall), to study the effect of different mulches (without mulch, WM as a control, white polyethylene: PM, rice straw: RSM, farmyard manure: FYMj on growth, water-use efficiency (WUE) and yield of squash under three irrigation treatments. Amount of applied irrigation to each experimental plot depended upon a percentage ofETc computed using the equation ofAllen et al (1998) in addition to the leaching requirements and considering the irrigation application efficiency. Irrigation treatments were irrigation on basis of 100, 85 and 70 % of computed evapotranspiration. Plant photosynthesis efficiency, total soluble sugars (FSS), leaf area index, harvest index (HI), yield and WUE were not significantly affected by interaction between irrigation and mulching treatments. All mulching materials effectively reduced salt accumulation in the root zone. Mulching treatments markedly increased WUE and yield in the order of FYM> RSM> PM> WM Results showed that, irrigation ofsquash with 85 . the I8j strategy studied here could be succe~sfully applied during summer and fall seasons in commercial squash production allowing water savings of 15% without any detrimental effect on plant growth or yield UR - http://nile.enal.sci.eg/EALE/2012/MJAE//012/20/217.pdf ER -