WATER MANAGEMENT FOR SESAME CROP IN SANDY SOIL

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to investigate the proper water regime of sesame crop under different irrigation methods in sandy soil in Egypt, Bostan West Delta. Two successive growing seasons of sesame production were conducted during 2013 and 2014 by the use of split plot design. The irrigation regime treatments were to apply 80%, 100% and 120% of the crop evapotranspiration. The three methods of irrigation were drip surface, drip subsurface and sprinkler methods. The irrigation intervals were 2 days and 4 days for the drip and sprinkler systems respectively. A seasonal water consumptive use by sesame were 490, 465 and 525 mm/season for drip surface, drip subsurface and sprinkler irrigation system respectively. Average irrigation applied water was 2641m3 /fed , 2496 m3 /fed and 4193 m3 /fed by the drip surface, drip subsurface and sprinkler systems respectively. The corresponding average seed yields were 557, 555 and 585 kg/fed.. Significant difference was found in seed production due to the irrigation system and the irrigation regime. The average oil yields were 237, 244 and 249.8 kg/fed. for the same previous order. The WUE of seeds and oil affected significantly by both the irrigation systems and irrigation regime. A high correlation was found between the biological yield and plant height, No. of capsules/plant and weight of dry seeds/plant as 0.86, 071 and 0.94 respectively. The yield functions of seeds and oil were non linear. A set of yield functions for seeds and oil under the different irrigation system were performed. The results indicated that when applying maximum irrigation water 2620 m3/fed., the subsurface drip irrigation system produced 702.6 kg seeds/fed. and 311.4 kg oil/fed., meanwhile the surface drip irrigation system produced 686.5 kg seeds/fed. and 304.8 kg oil/fed. when 2798.2 m3 water was added per fed. The sprinkle irrigation system produced 616.7 kg seeds/fed. and 268.1 kg oil/fed. when 4010.3 m3 water was added per fed.. Among all the study treatments, the application of subsurface drip irrigation system at 100% of ETc indicated the best results related with the yield of seeds and oil and the other yield components, Although, there is no significant difference between the irrigation water used between the subsurface drip and surface drip irrigation.