Effect of Deficit Irrigation during Growth Stages on Water Use Efficiency of Tomato under New El-Salhia Conditions

Abstract

There is no doubt the application of deficit irrigation during different growth stages is one of the most important modern methods for the optimal management to saving irrigation water while, application deficit irrigation on all growth stages for plant may have a negative impact on the quality and productivity of fruits, so this study aimed to determine the best of tomato growth stages that can be apply deficit irrigation on it without affecting the plant. Field experiments were carried out at a private farm in New Salhia area, El- Sharqia governorate, Egypt, during successful summer seasons of 2021 – 2022 to deliberated the effect of deficit irrigation water (DI) during different growth stages compared to full irrigation water (FI) under surface drip irrigation system types (T-Tape and GR) on quality parameters, marketable yield (MY), Actual evapotranspiration (ETa), water use efficacy (WUE), irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE) and yield response factor (Ky) for tomato fruit (Solanum lycopersicum, L.) by used the split plot design with three replicates for the experiment. The results concluded that; 1) The studied quality parameters of tomato fruits gave the highest values except pH at
apply treatment DI (I=100, D=50, M=50, L=50%) and dripper type GR for both seasons. 2) The marketable yield of tomato fruits gave the highest values at apply treatment FI (I=100, D=100, M=100, L=100%) and dripper type GR for both seasons. 3)The seasonal ETa gave the lowest values: 328.76 and 320.57 mm for both seasons, respectively, at apply treatment DI (I=100, D=50, M=50, L=50%) and dripper type GR. 4) The highest values of WUE and IWUE for tomato fruits were 16.82 and 11.69 kg/m3; 17.78 and 11.94 kg/m3 for both seasons, respectively, at apply treatment DI (I=100, D=75, M=75, L=50%) and dripper type GR. 5) The lowest values of Ky for tomato fruits were 0.19 and 0.21 for both seasons respectively, at apply treatment DI (I=100, D=75, M=100, L=100%) and dripper type GR. 6) The dripper type GR caused a noticeable increase in the values of MY for tomato fruit by about 17% and decrease in the values of ETa about 6% compared that to apply dripper type T-Tape at apply treatment FI (I=100, D=100, M=100, L=100%). Finally, this study concluded that the cultivation tomato under DI (I=100, D=75, M=75, L=50%) and dripper type GR treatment can probably save about 40% of amount irrigation water additive versus lost approximately 13 % of MY for tomato fruits compared to apply treatment FI (I=100, D=100, M=100, L=100%) and dripper type GR, hence excluded dripper type T-Tape due it gave the lowest values for all treatments compared with dripper type GR.