Effects of sub-surface wick irrigation system on crop yield, irrigation intervals, base period and crop water productivity of sponge gourd and bitter gourd.

Abstract

Abstract A field experiment was conducted on a clayey soil, during winter season of October 2022 to January 2023, at the experimental field of Department of Land and Water Management, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering, Sindh Agriculture University Tandojam on an area of 28m 2 , to evaluate the effects of sub-surface wick irrigation system on yield, irrigation intervals and crop water productivity (CWP) on sponge gourd ( Luffa aegyptiaca ) and Bitter Gourd ( Momordica charantia ) Crops. For burying wick attached bottles total 6 basins were prepared by cultivating the soil down to 60 cm with hand hoe; basin to basin distance was 2m. After that, wick attached bottles were buried 25-30 cm bellow the bed of the basins. The water holding capacity of each bottle was 2.25 liter, every bottle was cut from tail end for water filling purpose, and it also serves as covering lid to avoid evaporation losses. 3 basins were used for growing Sponge Gourd ( Luffa aegyptiaca ) with quality of irrigation water (1.47 dS/m) and other 3 for Bitter Gourd ( Momordica charantia ) crops with same irrigation water properties. 4 seeds of sponge gourd bitter gourd were buried at the depth of 2-5 cm around each basin. Bottles were refilled each time when they reached at a depletion level of 75%. Experimental design was randomized complete block design (RCBD) with two treatments: (1) Wick irrigation system for sponge gourd from Basin1 to 3 (WS) and Wick irrigation system for bitter gourd from basin 4 to 6 (WB). The results of the experiment revealed that the base period of sponge gourd crop was 95 days with 28 irrigation intervals, while the base period of bitter gourd was 102 days with 31 irrigation intervals. Average yield was achieved 3.64 kg/basin (10.03 ton/ha -1 ) with WS, 4.16 kg/basin (11.46 ton/ha -1 ) with WB treatments, respectively. The crop water productivity (CWP) of sponge gourd under WS was 13.86 kg/m 3 and 19.66 kg/m 3 for bitter gourd under WB treatments respectively. Base period was significantly increased by 20 to 30 days for both crops with wick irrigation system as compared to conventional flood irrigation systems. The study suggests that this system in not properly adopted or well understood by users, therefore it needs further improvement so that, the farmers can take more benefits and to make it more capable for large scales farming.