Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
18.4 CONCLUSIONS
The drip irrigation with plastic mulch is found to be an effective water saving tech-
nique over conventional basin irrigation method in Nagpur mandarin orchards. The
higher leaf nutrients uptake, improved plant growth, fruit yield and quality under drip
at optimum irrigation regime (60% Ecp) with black polythene mulch, using 36% less
water over basin irrigation method warrants the adoption of drip irrigation with black
polythene mulch in mandarin orchards of central India. It could enhance the longev-
ity and productivity of the citrus orchards in sustainable basis and support the further
expansion of area under the crop.
18.5 SUMMARY
As an evergreen fruit crop, citrus require adequate water for its annual life cycle. In
water scarce area, irrigation becomes a major constraint for citrus production. In these
regions, use of drip irrigation and plastic mulch may be a good option for commer-
cial citrus production. Keeping this in view, a field experiment was conducted during
2006-2009 to assess the response of various drip irrigation regimes, viz 40,60, 80
and 100% of cumulative pan evaporation on alternate day (Ecp) with black polyeth-
ylene mulch versus basin irrigation method in 4 year old Nagpur mandarin (
Citrus
reticulata
) plants budded on rough lemon (
Citrus jambhiri
) root stock. All the drip
irrigation regimes with plastic mulch produced a significantly higher annual increase
in tree height (0.47-0.64 m), canopy volume (0.53-0.99 m
3
), fruit yield (9.2-15.0 kg
plant
-1
) and water use efficiency (0.015-0.036 kg plant
-1
mm
-1
) over basin irrigation.
However, drip irrigation at 60% Ecp with plastic mulch produced the highest magni-
tude of plant growth parameters, fruit yield and water use efficiency. Among different
fruit quality parameters (juice percentage, TSS and acidity), significantly higher juice
content (39.8%) was observed in drip irrigation at 60% Ecp with plastic mulch over
control (36.5%). Analysis of leaf nutrients (N, P, K, Fe, Mn, Cu, and Zn) indicated that
the drip irrigation at 60% Ecp with plastic mulch produced a significantly higher leaf
N (2.56%), K (1.88%), and Fe (112.6 ppm) over basin irrigation. The study overall
concludes that the use of optimum drip irrigation with plastic mulch is a viable option
for citriculture in water scarce regions.
KEYWORDS
•
Citrus
•
Water scarcity
•
Yield
•
Water use efficiency
•
Fruit quality
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