Yield response of cucumber to deficit irrigation in greenhouses

Abstract

Water is the most important resource and limiting factor for agricultural development. In Saudi Arabia, the agricultural sector consumes more that 85% of the total annual water consumption. Recently, the demand on water for agriculture has increased which has resulted in water shortages in many regions of the country particularly the old oasis. Therefore, methods which increase water use efficiency (WUE) and reduce water excessive amount of water applied are of importance for conserving water. In this context, deficit irrigation can play an important role in increasing WUE and reduced amount of irrigation. Deficit irrigation is a strategy, which allows a crop to sustain some degree of water deficit during certain stages of crops or the whole season without a significant reduction in yield in order to reduce irrigation. In this study, a series of greenhouse and open field experiments were conducted using a deficit irrigation program on cucumber crops under drip irrigation during (2008-2010) growing seasons. Water was added at 40, 60, 80, 100% of ETc in addition to the traditional methods used by farmers in the region. The objective of the study was to determine the crop response factor (ky) and WUE of cucumber crop using a deficit irrigation program at different stages of growth and through the entire growing season. Results indicated that a cucumber could stand the shortage of water during the growth and crop response (Ky) values ranged between (0.70- 0.98); however, the amount of water used was much lower than that of traditional methods used by farmers in the region. © 2011 WIT Press.