Effect of Irrigation Systems and Irrigation Water Regime on the Vegetative Growth of Date Palm (Phoenix dactylifera) Plantation under Khartoum State Conditions, Sudan

Abstract

The experimental work was carried out at Nobles Farm for Modern Systems located at 25km south east of Khartoum during two consecutive years 2011/012 and 2012/013 with the objectives of determining the optimum water requirements of the young date palm tree and investigating the response of young date palm of Barhi cultivar to different water regimes. The treatments included drip irrigation and conventional basin irrigation systems with three irrigation water regimes (50%, 75% and 100% ETc). Split plot experimental design with three replications was used in which the two irrigation systems were assigned to the main plots while irrigation water regimes were allocated to the sub plots. The variations among the means were checked by the Least Significant Difference (LSD). A computer program (SAS statistical package) was used to analyze the data. Crop water requirement was determined using CROPWAT version 8 computer model. The parameters tested were; plant height (cm), number of leaves per plant, number of leaflets per leaf, stem diameter (cm), number of offshoots and length of offshoots (cm).The optimum crop water requirement of young date palm tree was found to be 20 m3 / tree/year for drip irrigation, while it was 39 m3/ tree/year under the conventional basin irrigation.Drip irrigation gave the highest mean values of vegetative growthas compared to conventional basin irrigation system. The irrigation water amount of 100% ETc significantly (P = 0.5) increased the vegetative characteristics as compared to 50% ETc. The vegetative growth was significantly affected by the interaction between the irrigation systems and the different irrigation water regimes used. The reduction percentage in vegetative growth with reduced water 75% ETc was found to be 20% of the value of full crop water requirement (100% ETc), while it was increased to reach 43% of the value of full crop water requirement under 50% ETc. It is to be concluded that, drip irrigation system with 100 ETc% are highly needed to increase the vegetative growth of date palm offshoots.