Effect of Emulsifying Petroleum Derivatives, Water Deficit Treatment and Emitters Discharge on Dry Weight, Grain yield and Water use Efficiency of Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.)

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted in Qurnah district, Basrah province on clay soil to study the effect of six treatments of emulsifying petroleum derivatives with irrigation water by using emulsifying agent adding directly to soil surface, gas oil with two ratios of 0.3% (g3) and 0.5% (g5) w/w of soil dry weight, two admixture treatments of fuel oil and gas oil (1:1) with two ratio 0.3%(go3) and 0.5% (go5), fuel oil 0.3% (o3) and control treatment 0% (c) without any addition. The effect of water deficit factor also studied with two levels 0.85 (w1) and 0.65 (w2) of available water by using drip irrigation with two emitters; low discharge 5 Lhr-1 (Ld) and high discharge 15Lhr-1(Hd). The results showed that all emulsified derivative conditioners significantly increased  dry weight, grain yield and water use efficiency calculated for dry weight WUE (d) and grain WUE (g) of sunflower compared with control treatment, especially at g5 and go5 treatments which recorded the highest values. Soil capability for saving water and available water increased as a result of the addition of emulsified oil derivatives, which contributed to increase the interval time between irrigation periods and reduce the quantity of irrigation water with less value appearing at g5 and go5 under 65% water deficit treatment by using 15 Lhr-1 emitter discharge. Increasing emitter discharge from  5 to 15 L hr -1, and increasing irrigation deficit from 0.65 to 0.85 led to increasing all growth parameters, except water use efficiency.