The Effect of A300 Hydrogel Superabsorbent on Cucumber Yield and Estimation of Optimum Water-Yield Production Function under Water Stress Conditions

In this study, the effect of water stress and different levels of superabsorbent on cucumber yield (variety of super dominus hybrid) in a farm with sandy soil was evaluated in Seimare region, Elam province, Iran. Experimental design was performed according to split plot method in a randomized complete block design. Three different levels of irrigation were considered as the main treatment including 100 (I1), 80 (I2) and 60 (I3) percent of crop water requirement and four levels of superabsorbent were used as secondary treatment including zero (S0), 15 (S1), 30 (S2) and 45 gm-2 (S3). According to the results, the effect of irrigation and superabsorbent treatments was significant on cucumber yield at 1 percent level. The average maximum and minimum crop yield were 3.7 and 1.97 kgm-2 which were corresponded to the full irrigation (I1) and severe drought stress (I3) treatments. In addition, the effect of irrigation and superabsorbent treatments was significant on water productivity of cucumber crop at 1 percent level. The maximum and minimum water productivity were 8.11 and 6.15 kgm-3 which were corresponded to the full irrigation (I1) and severe drought stress (I3) treatments. Also, a quadratic function was introduced as the optimum water-yield production function for cucumber crop (variety of super dominus hybrid) in the sandy soil amended with superabsorbent. Finally, it was concluded that the superabsorbent could prevent from the significant reduction of cucumber yield in sandy soil and under drought stress conditions.