Evaluation of Fruit Yield and Water Use Efficiency of Apricot under Surface, Subsurface Drip and Subsurface Sand Column Systems

One of the important goals of irrigation is maximum use of water volume unit in limited conditions of water resources. Subsurface drip irrigation allows the applied water in the garden to be stored in the root zone of the trees in the soil profile and the evaporation losses from the ground to be minimized. In these conditions, the water use efficiency as well as water productivity reaches the maximum possible value. Due to the many advantages such as high efficiency of water consumption in the subsurface irrigation system, this study was conducted to implement the idea of subsurface irrigation without applied dripper below the soil surface. The research plan was implemented in the apricot garden of the water and soil and industry deputy minister of Jehade-Keshavarzi at Alborz province, Karaj city. The age of the apricot trees was 10 years old and three irrigation systems namely surface drip irrigation, subsurface drip irrigation and subsurface sand column were compared with each other in this research project. Crop yield measurement and morphological traits of each treatment were determined separately and then statistical analysis was performed on them with MSTATC and SPSS software. The results showed that the root penetration into dripper in subsurface drip irrigation as well as root accumulation under conductor pipes in subsurface irrigation using sand columns and surface drip blocked water flow from dripper and conductors pipes to soil profile. However, water use efficiency in subsurface irrigation systems using sand columns, subsurface and surface drip irrigation were obtained 1.21, 1.09 and 0.58 kg / m3, respectively and the priority of subsurface irrigation compared to surface drip irrigation was obtained, but root penetration into drip emitters and conductor pipes in subsurface systems has failed the idea of subsurface irrigation.