Potato performance as influenced by the proportion of wetted soil volume and nitrogen under drip irrigation with plastic mulch

Kaijing Yang, Fengxin Wang, Clinton C. Shock, Shaozhong Kang, Zailin Huo, Na Song and Dan Ma

Agricultural Water Management, 2017, vol. 179, issue C, 260-270

Abstract: Scarce water resources and substantial food demands require efficient water use in arid Northwestern China. Field experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of the proportion of wetted soil (P) and nitrogen fertilizer (N) on potato yield, crop evapotranspiration (ETc), water use efficiency (WUE), and quality under drip irrigation with plastic mulch. In 2012, a factorial trial was conducted with two soil wetting proportions (40% and 70%) and five N rates (90, 135, 180, 225 and 270kgNha−1). In 2013, a factorial trial tested two soil wetting proportions (50% and 75%) and four N rates (90, 150, 210 and 270kgNha−1). Results showed that seasonal ETc was greater with higher P, but the difference in ETc was not significant among different N rates. Although tuber yields of different P levels were not statistically different, yields with lower P were numerically larger than with higher P. The water was used more efficiently with lower proportions of wetted soil. Potato yield, WUE, and tuber starch and vitamin C content responded quadratically to the rate of applied N. Tuber protein was positively and linearly correlated with the N rate. The results suggest that potato could be cultivated with a moderate P (40–50%) and an intermediate rate of applied N (135–150kgNha−1) under drip irrigation with mulch, achieving acceptable yields and quality while saving irrigation water and conserving N fertilizer.

Keywords: Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.); Drip irrigation with mulch; Crop evapotranspiration; Soil wetting proportion; Yield and quality; Water use efficiency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (17)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377416301317
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:179:y:2017:i:c:p:260-270

DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2016.04.014

Access Statistics for this article

Agricultural Water Management is currently edited by B.E. Clothier, W. Dierickx, J. Oster and D. Wichelns

More articles in Agricultural Water Management from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().