Mulching increases water-use efficiency of peach production on the rainfed semiarid Loess Plateau of China

Abstract

We examine the water-use balance, fruit yield and water-use efficiency of five-year-old peach trees with two different mulching systems: plastic film mulched ridge, with furrows (PFM) and straw mulched (SM). Compared with the clean tillage (CT) water management method, PFM increased, and SM significantly decreased, the soil temperature (P<0.05). Both mulching systems increased the gravimetric soil water content (1.9–2.9%) with a reduction in the average annual evapotranspiration (ET) of 82.5mm and 49.3mm through SM and PFM, respectively. The water-use efficiency (WUE) was improved from 5.7 (CT) to 8.1 (PFM) and 9.0kgm−3 (SM), resulting in a reduction in ET and an increase in fruit yield from 25.2 (CT) to 32.2 (PFM) and 32.5tha−1 (SM). Thus, both mulching systems could serve as models for peach production in semiarid rainfed areas, due to the high soil water content during bloom and fruit expansion.