Response of hybrid tomato to drip irrigation scheduling and plastic mulching

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to study the effect of drip irrigation quantity and mulching on crop growth, yield and water use efficiency (WUE) of tomato grown during the rabi seasons of 2007 and 2008. Two levels of drip irrigation (I1, irrigation with V volume of water; I2, with 0.5V volume of water) and four types of plastic mulch (M0, without mulch; M1, yellow polythene; M2, transparent polythene; M3 black polythene) treatments were applied to tomato planted on a sandy loam soil. Results indicated that the photosynthetic traits such as; chlorophyll content, initial fluorescence (F0), and maximum quantum yield of photosystem II (Fv/Fm) were significantly higher under I1 and black polythene mulch. Dry matter production under drip irrigation with V (˜100% PE) quantity of water was 33.2% more than with 0.5V. Polythene mulching remarkably improved the plant biomass, and plants mulched with black polythene registered 94.7% higher dry matter over unmulched control. Drip irrigation with V quantity of water (I1) resulted in significantly higher fruit yield (2.71 kg/plant and 847.52 q/ha). Maximum fruit yield (2.66 kg/plant and 851.59 q/ha) was recorded with black polythene mulch. Weed growth under 0.5 V (I2) was significantly lower (25% less) than I1. All kinds of plastic mulches gave significant weed control, however, the highest weed reduction (89% over control) was observed with black polythene mulch. Maximum WUE of 49.60 kg/mm-ha was obtained in I2, whereas, among mulches WUE was maximum with black polythene (46.03 kg/mm-ha).