Effect of Plastic Mulching and Irrigation Levels on Yield of Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum)
Gottam Kishore
*
Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Bhopal, India.
Banda Maheswara Babu
University of Agricultural Sciences, Raichur, India.
Lakshmi Poojitha Challa
Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Bhopal, India.
S. Vinod Kumar
Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Bhopal, India.
Upendar Konga
Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Bhopal, India.
M. Lakshmi Durga
Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Bhopal, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Plastic mulches are widely used for cultivation of vegetables. An experiment was conducted to observe the impact of plastic colour mulches on soil temperature, water use efficiency (WUE) and produce of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) under drip irrigation from 2015-2016. The treatments were laid out in split plot design with three replications. The plastic coloured mulches used were white on black, silver on black and black. 60, 80, 100 and 120% evapotranspiration (ET) used as irrigation levels and a non-mulched treatment as control. Due to the interaction effects, treatment white colour on black plastic mulch with 80% ET i.e., I2M1 recorded the maximum yield (93.54 t ha-1) followed by silver colour on black plastic mulch with 80% ET (I2M2) produced 87.65 t ha-1. Plastic colour mulching improved production compared to bare soil. as the plants grown in white colour on black plastic colour mulch resulted 40 to 54% increase in yield compared to control treatment.
Keywords: Bare soil, plastic mulch, irrigation levels, evapo-transpiration