Evaluation of cucumber yield, economic benefit and water productivity under different soil matric potentials in solar greenhouses in North China

Haijun Liu, Congyan Yin, Zhuangzhuang Gao and Lizhu Hou

Agricultural Water Management, 2021, vol. 243, issue C

Abstract: Cucumber (Cucumis sativus, L.) is widely grown in greenhouses in China as an offseason vegetable because of its high yield and economic benefits. Considering that cucumber is sensitive to soil water conditions, optimal irrigation scheduling may further enhance cucumber yields and water productivity. In this study, a 3-season experiment from January 2018 to July 2019 was conducted in a new type of commercial solar greenhouse in North China. Three irrigation treatments with controlled soil matric potentials (SMP) of -10 (T1), -15 (T2) and −20 kPa (T3) were established in drip irrigation plots, and the local practice of furrow irrigation was applied as the control (CK). The cucumber yield and economic benefit for each treatment were measured, and irrigation efficiency (IE), irrigation water productivity (WPI) and total economic, gross margin and net margin irrigation water productivities, referring to TEWPI, GEWPI and NEWPI, respectively, were evaluated. The results show that the fresh cucumber yields of the T1 treatment were the highest and were 2.2%, 4.3 and 4.4% higher than those of T2, T3 and CK, respectively. Similarly, the total revenue from T1 was the highest and was 2.2%-3.9% higher than those from the other three treatments. However, the total yields and revenue among the four treatments were not significantly (p > 0.05) different. The amount of irrigation water used in the CK treatment was the highest and was 126%, 188% and 204% higher than those in the T1, T2 and T3 treatments, respectively. The IEs in T1 to T3 were 1.03-1.38, and were much high than the value of 0.46 in CK, WPI and the three economic irrigation water productivities (TEWPI, GEWPI and NEWPI,) were the highest in T3 and close to those in T2, then followed by T1, and the lowest was found in CK. After fully considering the economic benefits and water productivity, an SMP threshold of -15 ∼ −20 kPa and a wetting depth of 20 cm is recommended for cucumber production in drip-irrigated greenhouses in North China.

Keywords: Soil matric potential; cucumber; irrigation efficiency; economic irrigation water productivity, greenhouse (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:243:y:2021:i:c:s0378377420307605

DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2020.106442

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