Effects of different irrigation methods and mulching on yield, growth and water use efficiency of strawberry

ABSTRACT

A greenhouse experiment was conducted from 2015–2016 to 2017–2018 on an Aeric Haplaquept to evaluate the effect of irrigation (surface irrigation at furrows at irrigation water: cumulative pan evaporation = 1, drip irrigation to meet 100%, 80% and 60% of actual crop evapotranspiration demand), and mulch (nonwoven jute agro textile, biodegradable plastic film, rice straw and no mulch) regimes on strawberry. Average soil water storage in root zone (86 mm) and fraction of potential plant available water (61%) was highest in jute agrotextile mulched and drip irrigated at 80% actual evapotranspiration. This combination of mulch and irrigation regime increased belowground (root length density, 7.15 × 10³ mm⁻³) and above ground (leaf area index, 9.4) crop growth and emerged as the best option with three- and four-times higher yield (31.1 Mg ha⁻¹) and water use efficiency (23.1 kg m⁻³), respectively than surface irrigated unmulched strawberry. Results suggest that these findings be incorporated into packages and practices of strawberry cultivation in the moist tropical sub-humid region of Bengal basin and other similar agroecological regions of South Asia.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

HIGHLIGHTS

1. Growing strawberries with drip irrigation to meet 80% of the crop’s evaporative demand, coupled with jute agro-textile mulch, enhanced yield and water use efficiency three and four times more, respectively, compared to surface irrigation without mulch.

2. After irrigation, redistributing total soil water in the root zone resulted in a 25% increase for 1.0 ETc and a 22% increase for 0.8 ETc compared to surface irrigation.

3. Site-specific Kc values of strawberry were estimated.

4. Established the relationship of Kc with leaf area index and growing degree-days.

KEYWORDS:

• Drip irrigation
• jute agro textile mulch
• evapotranspiration
• yield
• water use efficiency
• Leaf area index

Acknowledgements

We thank ICAR-Indian Institute of Water Management, nodal cell of All India Co-ordinated Research Project of Irrigation Water Management, Government of West Bengal and Directorate of Research, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya (State Agricultural University of West Bengal, India) for support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The raw data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding author.

Authors’ contributions

Benukar Biswas: Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Software, Validation, Visualisation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing, Jagadish Timsina: Review & editing. Krishna Gopal Mandal: Review & editing. Anandkumar Naorem: Graphics