Effects of Mixing Ratio of Sawdust with soil on Yield and Root Morphological Characteristics of Greenhouse Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) in different Moisture levels

To study the effect of sawdust and different Moisture levels on morphological characteristics of greenhouse cucumber, an experiment was conducted in a complete randomized design with three replications in Moghan callege of agriculture. The main and secondary factors were different moisture levels (without stress, 45 and 65% of field capacity) and mixture ratios of sawdust (without sawdust, 5, 10, 20 and 40% sawdust content), respectively. Among different sawdust treatments, 20% sawdust resulted in higher weight of fresh root weigh, with a significant difference with other treatments at the level of 1% based on Duncan's multiple range test. 10, 40, 50 and zero percent of sawdust were ranked in the next order, respectively. The highest root length was observed in control, followed by the treatment of 10% sawdust mixture in 65% moisture level conditions. Also, non-stress treatment with 5% had the lowest root length, but in terms of root length, all treatments at the level of one percent, were placed in similar group. With increasing moisture depletion from 0 to 65%, the yield of 0% sawdust was reduced by approximately 62% of control treatment. And in the 5%, the yield reduction increased to 55%. Also, the yield reduction in 10, 20 and 40% sawdust was estimated at 18, 10 and 25%, of control treatment respectively. The highest yield was 134 tons per hectare obtained for control treatment in 20% and 40% with 128 tons per hectare was in second order and in all applied moisture depletion, the yield of sawdust treatments is higher than the control treatments. Therefore, in the studied sandy-clay-loam soil, using 20% of sawdust mixing ratio, in control treatment and applied moisture depletion, will have better performance.