Effect of Drip Irrigation on Peach Trees Grown in Heavy Clay Soils.

Abstract

The present investigation was conducted during the two successive growing seasons 2013 and 2014 at a private farm located at Sidi Salem District , Kafr EL-Sheikh Governorate to study the effect of drip irrigation technique on peach trees productivity and some water relations in heavy clay soils .The investigation was carried out on "Florda prince " peach trees, seven years old budded on Nemaguard rootstock and spaced at 5×5 metre apart .The studied soil is heavy clay in texture. The selected trees were in a good health condition and uniform in both vegetative growth and fruit load. The used experimental design in this present is randomized complete blocks with three replicates .Twenty trees were selected in this study and divided randomly into four groups ; each group was subjected to one of the following irrigation treatments:I1 ( irrigation every 4 days with working hours ,5) ,I2 (irrigation every 4 days with working hours ,4 ), I3 (irrigation every 4 days with working hours ,3 ) and I 4 (irrigation every 4 days with working hours ,2) The main results can be summarized as follows:The highest overall mean values for water applied and water consumptive use for each irrigation and seasonal /fed. were recorded under irrigation treatment I1 in comparison with other irrigation treatments I2, I3 and I4 and the values were 6.54 cm /fed./irrigation (274.68 m 3 /fed./irrigation ),78.48cm/fed./season (3296.16 m 3/ fed./season) for water applied ,while for water consumptive use , the values are 5.64 cm/fed./ irrigation ( 236.89 m 3/ fed./irrigation), 67.69 cm/fed./season ( 2842.67 m 3/ fed./season). Meanwhile , the lowest overall mean values for the abovementioned studied parameters were recorded under irrigation treatment I 4 and the values for water applied were 2.69cm / fed./irrigation (113.02m 3/ fed./irrigation ) ,32.29cm/fed./ season (1356.27 m 3/ fed./season) ,while ,for water consumptive use, the values were 2.14cm/fed./irrigation(89.58m 3/ fed./irrigation),25.60cm/fed./season(1074.93m 3 /fed./se ason).Generally , the overall mean values for water applied and consumptive use can be descended in order I1>I2>I3>I4.Concerning, the effect of irrigation treatments on consumptive use efficiency ( Ecu,%) , the highest overall mean value was recorded under irrigation treatment I1 and the value was 86.25%, but the lowest value was recorded under irrigation treatment I4 and the value is 79.27%. Regarding ,water productivity (WP) and productivity of irrigation water ( PIW) ,the highest overall mean values are 4.98 and 3.95 kg/m 3 for WP and PIW ,respectively . On the other hand, the lowest overall mean values for WP and PIW were recorded under irrigation treatment I1 and the values are 2.0kg/m 3 and 1.74 kg fruits/m 3 , respectively. Concerning , yield ,fruit set ,total chlorophyll ,leaf area, total water content ,free water content, bound water content, leaf water deficit , NPK and Mg concentrations in peach leaves were significantly affected by irrigation treatments in the two growing seasons except ,pre-harvest fruit drop ...