Elsevier

Agricultural Water Management

Volume 95, Issue 12, December 2008, Pages 1323-1334
Agricultural Water Management

Effect of mulching on soil and plant water status, and the growth and yield of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in a semi-arid environment

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2008.06.001Get rights and content

Abstract

Mulching is one of the important agronomic practices in conserving the soil moisture and modifying the soil physical environment. Wheat, the second most important cereal crop in India, is sensitive to soil moisture stress. Field experiments were conducted during winter seasons of 2004–2005 and 2005–2006 in a sandy loam soil to evaluate the soil and plant water status in wheat under synthetic (transparent and black polyethylene) and organic (rice husk) mulches with limited irrigation and compared with adequate irrigation with no mulch (conventional practices by the farmers). Though all the mulch treatments improved the soil moisture status, rice husk was found to be superior in maintaining optimum soil moisture condition for crop use. The residual soil moisture was also minimum, indicating effective utilization of moisture by the crop under RH. The plant water status, as evaluated by relative water content and leaf water potential were favourable under RH. Specific leaf weight, root length density and dry biomass were also greater in this treatment. Optimum soil and canopy thermal environment of wheat with limited fluctuations were observed under RH, even during dry periods. This produced comparable yield with less water use, enhancing the water use efficiency. Therefore, it may be concluded that under limited irrigation condition, RH mulching will be beneficial for wheat as it is able to maintain better soil and plant water status, leading to higher grain yield and enhanced water use efficiency.

Introduction

Effect of mulching on conserving moisture and increasing productivity of crops had been reported in maize (Zhang et al., 2005), wheat (Verma and Acharya, 2004a, Verma and Acharya, 2004b, Li et al., 2005, Huang et al., 2005, Rahman et al., 2005), vegetables (Ramalan and Nwokeocha, 2000, Araki and Ito, 2004, Incalcaterra et al., 2003) and other crops (Tariq et al., 2001, Kumar et al., 2003, Haq, 2000, Kar and Singh, 2004) and also in bare plots (Farrukh and Safdar, 2004, Giordani et al., 2004). Mulch has the potential to control weed growth (Erenstein, 2002) and retain soil moisture (Dalrymple et al., 1992, Manakul, 1994, Enrique et al., 1999). Combination of irrigation with mulch technology is advocated for better uptake of water by the spring wheat (Li et al., 2004) and to reduce the number of irrigation (Mandal and Ghosh, 1984). These results have strongly established that the conserved moisture through mulching have been very effective to plants during stress.

However, the quantification in terms of growth attributes and soil–plant–water relationships in wheat under mulch have not been substantiated. Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is the most important rabi cereal crop in the north India. India is the second largest producer of wheat, but there has been significant yield stagnation since 1999–2000 (Nagarajan, 2005). This crop is highly sensitive to moisture and thermal stress. In many parts of the region, it is cultivated as a rainfed crop, particularly in the semi-arid tracts of central and peninsular India. Even in irrigated areas, the availability of assured water for irrigation has become limited. Under rainfed situation, maintaining favourable soil moisture in root zone is necessary for continued growth and yield of wheat. Among various agronomic measures, mulching may be one of the suitable method to maintain optimum moisture and thermal environment in soil, increase water use efficiency through reduction in evaporation and subsequently higher grain yield.

The mulch also varies widely in terms of the material used and their differential effects in producing the hydrothermal regimes in soil and plant. Information is scanty on the comparative effect of organic and plastic mulches under the same crop with similar type of agro-environment. Therefore, a study was conducted in a sandy loam soil under semi-arid environment of Delhi, India, to evaluate the soil and plant water status in wheat under different types of mulches. In our experiment, as the water retention parameters were to be compared with respect to soil water status at similar growth stages of the crop, mulching was done after emergence so that the phenology of the crop is nearly the same in all treatments.

Section snippets

Study area

Field experiments were conducted during rabi (winter) 2004–2005 and 2005–2006 at the Research Farm of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India (77°9′N, 28°37′E, 228.7 m asl) with wheat (T. aestivum, L.) as the test crop. The climate is semi-arid with warm summer and mild winter. Summers are long (early April–August) with the monsoon setting in between (July–September). The soil is sandy loam (Typic Haplustept) with medium to angular blocky structure, non-calcareous and

Results

During 2004–2005, a dry spell prevailed during the initial crop growth stages until the winter rain occurred during last week of January (Table 1). However, months of December and January were very cold with moderate sunshine and low pan evaporation (1–3 mm day−1) and thus plants suffered less. During 2005–2006, though the rainfall was well-distributed over the season, month of February was unusually warm with no rain. However, all the plots were irrigated at 96 DAS coinciding with this warm

Discussion

The higher soil moisture status indicated role of mulch in conserving the moisture in soil, though the effects between mulches varied. Rice husk seemed to be the best in maintaining moisture in both surface and sub-surface layers from sowing to harvest, closely followed by TP mulch. Similar findings under rice straw mulch were reported by Rahman et al. (2005). The rate of drying of soil was slow, resulting in water availability for relatively longer period during crop growth and development.

Conclusion

Compared to polyethylene mulch, RH was found to provide a better soil physical environment in terms of soil moisture retention, especially during long dry periods when the crop was exposed to water stress, and optimal soil temperature during the crop growth. These favourable conditions led to maintenance of cooler canopy and higher plant water status. Crop growth in terms of SLW and root length density, though considerably higher in adequately irrigated wheat, RH performed satisfactorily with

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