Yield Barley and its Components Irrigated with Brackish and Grey Water

Severe freshwater scarcity in Iran has raised interest in utilizing abundant brackish and grey water resources. The presence of vast resources of such water in the province of Esfahan (PE) and tremendous volume of municipal and industrial nutritious grey water in that area dictates that those unconventional resources should replace freshwater for irrigation of salt tolerant crops, i.e., barley. Therefore, an experiment was conducted in the Borkhar District of PE using brackish groundwater, grey water, and mixture of both with an electrical conductivity (EC) of 7.0, 1.4, and 4.0 ds/m, respectively. There were 3 replications pretreatment. Effects of water conductivity on barley yield and its components were significant at the 5% level except for the plant height. Irrigation with the grey water produces the highest yield, larger 1000 kernel weight, seed dry weight, spike length, and leaf area. The mixture of ground and grey water took the second position. As the repeated irrigation with grey water may adversely affect the soil, its consequences should be monitored periodically.