Saoud Sarboukh *(1), Faten Al-Safadi (1), Baraa Bodakka(1), Safaa Bodakka(1), Amjad Abo Mogdeb(1)
(1). General Commission of Scientific Agricultural Research -Scientific Agricultural research center in As-Sowaidaa
(*Corrsponding author: Saoud SarboukhE-Mail:srbook72@gmail.com).
Received: 04/03/2019 Accepted: 07/04/2019
Abstract
This study was conducted at Huot Research station, General Commission for Scientific Agricultural Research (GCSAR) during 2016-2017 in order to achieve: (1) study the effect of deficit irrigation (DI) on some of the yield properties of water melon , (2) study the effect of DI on water melon water use efficiency and irrigation water needs. Therefore three treatments were tested in this experiment (1) 100% of ETc irrigation, (2) 75% of ETc irrigation, (3) 50% of ETc irrigation. Complete randomized design with three replications was used. Where (DI) was applied when the first flower bloomed.The results showed that water melon irrigation needs 550 mm. in addition it showed that the deficit irrigation decreased significantly the yield of water melon fruits, the fruit Wight, and the water use efficiency when the irrigation percents of Etc were decreased, where the yield was 8645, 6185, 3505 kg/ donm, and the fruit wight was 12.49, 9.53, 5.25 kg/ fruit, for the treatments 100% of ETc irrigation, 75% of ETc irrigation, 50% of ETc irrigation respectively. In the other hand total solublesolids significantly increased as the water stress increased where thetotal soluble solids was 6.42%, 7.55%, 8.61%, for the treatments 100% of ETc irrigation, 75% of ETc irrigation, 50% of ETc irrigation respectively. Therefore, when water is easily available with little cost it is recommended to apply 100% of ETc irrigation on water melon, else 75% of ETc irrigation DI is recommended when there is a shortage in water recourses or the water price is so high, but 50% of ETc irrigation is not recommended.
Keyword: Water melon, Deficit irrigation, Water needs, Water use efficiency.
Full paper in Arabic: PDF