Organo mineral fertilizer can mitigate water stress for cucumber production (Cucumis sativus L.)

Agricultural Water Management 159 (2015) 1–10

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Organo mineral fertilizer can mitigate water stress for cucumber production (Cucumis sativus L.) Taia A. Abd El-Mageed a,∗ , Wael M. Semida b a b

Soil and Water Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Fayoum University, 63514 Fayoum, Egypt Horticulture Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Fayoum University, 63514 Fayoum, Egypt

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history: Received 22 January 2015 Received in revised form 21 May 2015 Accepted 22 May 2015 Keywords: Organo mineral fertilizer Chlorophyll fluorescence Cucumber Water stress Yield Water use efficiency

a b s t r a c t Supplying organo mineral fertilizer [a 2:10:1 (w/w/w) mixture of sulfur, compost and potassium humate] under deficit irrigation conditions could be a practical solution to compensate the negative effect of water stress on cucumber crop. For this purpose, two consecutive field experiments (summer and fall seasons) were conducted during 2014. Three organo mineral fertilizer (OMF) levels (0, 5 and 10 t ha−1 ) were supplied as a soil amendment combined with three irrigation levels (100, 80 and 60% of crop evapotranspiration). Under full irrigation, seasonal water use by cucumber was 397 mm over 76 days in summer season and 292 mm over 86 days in fall season, respectively. Cucumber fruit quality, yield, and water use efficiency (WUE) were significantly (p < 0.05) affected by season and both irrigation quantity and organo mineral fertilizer application. Leaf area, dry matter, relative water content (RWC %), membrane stability index (MSI %), and harvest index (HI) were also significantly (p < 0.05) affected by irrigation quantity and organo menial fertilizer and were not significantly affected by season except for dry matter. Interaction between growing season and both irrigation and organo mineral fertilizer were not significantly affected. The highest fruit yields (19.76 t ha−1 and 15.94 t ha−1 in fall and summer season) were recorded under full irrigation and 10 t ha−1 of OMF. Organo mineral fertilizer of 10 t ha−1 and 5 t ha−1 significantly (p ≤ 0.05) increased fruit yield by 53.49 and 15.93% compared to control. The results suggest that the detrimental effects of drought stress can be reduced by using organo mineral fertilizer as a soil amendment for vegetable crops. Combining deficit irrigation and organo mineral fertilizer maximized crop water productivity. © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction In arid regions where irrigation is required for crop production, growers are seeking methods to save water by increasing irrigation efficiency. Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) is a favorite commodity for exportation and local consumption and represents one of the most important economic vegetables in Egypt. The total cultivated area of cucumber in Egypt was about 26,071 ha in 2012 (FAO Statistical Yearbook, 2012). It requires more water than grain crops (Li and Wang, 2000; Mao et al., 2003). Mao et al. (2003) found that fresh fruit yields of cucumber were highly affected by the total volume of irrigation water at all growth stages. Recently the available amount of water to agriculture is declining worldwide because the rapid population growth and the greater incidence of drought caused by climate change and different human activities (World

∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +20 1067536208; fax: +20 84 6334964. E-mail address: [email protected] (T.A. Abd El-Mageed). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2015.05.020 0378-3774/© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Bank, 2006). Deficit irrigation (DI) (i.e., irrigation below the optimum crop water requirements) is a strategy for water-saving by which crops are subjected to a certain level of water stress either during a particular period or throughout the whole growing season (Pereira et al., 2002). The main goal of using DI is to increase water-use efficiency by reducing the amount of water applied with watering or by reducing the number of irrigation events (Kirda, 2002). Deficit irrigation effects on growth and productivity of many vegetables and field crops have been widely investigated (Ertek et al., 2004; Karam et al., 2006; Fereres and Soriano, 2007; Igbadun et al., 2008; Amer, 2011). However, the effects of DI are cropspecific. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the impact of DI strategies with multi-years open field experiments, before generalizing the most appropriate irrigation scheduling method to be adapted in a specific location for a given crop (Scholberg et al., 2000; Igbadun et al., 2008). Research evidences has shown that DI is successful in increasing water productivity for different crops without causing severe yield reduction (Geerts and Raes, 2009). El-Dewiny (2011) reported that summer squash yield decreased

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by increasing water deficits. Successful management of the limited amount of water available for agricultural uses depends on better agricultural practices and enhanced understandings of water productivity (Howell, 2001; Jones, 2004). Deficit irrigation combined with organo mineral fertilizer could be a very promising practice among the water management practices for increasing water use efficiency (WUE) especially at field scale. Organic matter inputs through organic amendments, in addition to supplying nutrients, improve soil aggregation, and stimulate microbial diversity and activity (Shiralipour et al., 1992; CarpenterBoggs et al., 2000). Improvement of soil aggregation through its effects on soil water content, temperature, aeration and mechanical impedance influences root development and seedling emergence (Ferreras et al., 2000). Mineral-nutrient status of plants has a major role in its adaptation to stress. K plays a vital role in improving the plant resistance. In this concern, Mengel and Kirkby (2001), found that K regularizes physiological processes like photosynthesis, translocation of cations into sink organs, regulation of turgor pressure and enzymes activation. Cakmak (2005) indicated that plant suffering from drought stress required more internal K. In legumes, damaging effects of drought can be diminished by ample K supply (Sangakkara et al., 2000). Low grain yield resulting from water deficit could be overcome by increasing K supply (Damon and Rengel, 2007). Sulfur (S) is an important plant nutrient involved in plant growth and development. It is considered fourth in importance after nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Among the mineral nutrients, sulfur (S) plays an important role not only in growth and development of higher plants but also is associated with stress tolerance in plants (Marschner, 1995). Sulfur limitation results in decreased yield and quality parameters of crops (Hawkesford, 2000). Adequate S nutrition improves photosynthesis and growth of plants, and it has regulatory interaction with N assimilation (Scherer, 2008). Sulfur deficiency regulates the chlorophyll content of leaves, N content, photosynthetic enzymes (Thomas et al., 2000; Lunde et al., 2008) and decresed soil pH (Sule, 2012). Owing to considerable evidence of the adverse effects of water stress on plant growth, it was hypothesized that the novel organ mineral fertilizer used in this study as a soil amendment can overcome the injurious effects of water stress on cucumber plants. Thus, the primary objective of this work was to examine whether or not the organo-mineral fertilizer could mitigate the effects of water stress and regulate cucumber plant growth by adjusting the soil moisture content, plant water status, and chlorophyll fluorescence of cucumber. 2. Materials and methods 2.1. Experimental set-up Two experiments were conducted in two successive growing seasons: summer season (SS) and fall season (FS) of 2014, at farmer’s field located in El Fayoum province which occupies a depression west of the Nile at 90 km southwest of Cairo, Egypt between latitudes 29◦ 02 and 29◦ 35 N and longitudes 30◦ 23 and 31◦ 05 E. According to the aridity index (Ponce et al., 2000) the area is located under arid climatic conditions. Physical and chemical properties of the experimental site soil were conducted according to the methods and procedures outlined and described by Klute (1986) and Page et al. (1982) in (Tables 2 and 3). The selection of the OMF levels was through a preliminary pots study, where we have prepared several mixtures of this organo-mineral fertilizer of different proportions, and the mixture used [2:10:1 (w/w/w) mixture of sulfur, compost and potassium humate] in this research is the one who gave the best results. Experiments were conducted in a randomized split plot design. Treatments were divided into three levels of irrigation

water applied (IWA) and three organo mineral fertilizer (OMF) treatments. IWA was specified as a percentage of the crop evapotranspiration (ETc) representing one of the following three treatments: I100 = 100%, I80 = 80% and I60 = 60% of ETc. IWA treatments were assisted in the main plots, while the organo mineral fertilizer treatments namely (OMF0 = 0 t ha−1 , used as control, OMF1 = 5 t ha−1 ,and OMF2 = 10 t ha−1 of the OMF) were allocated in the sub-plots. Organo mineral fertilizer was incorporated in the soil before sowing cucumber. The main characteristics of the organo mineral fertilizer (OMF) used in these experiments were: pH [at a OMF sample: water (w/v) ratio of 1:2.5], 7.2; EC (dS m−1 ; OMF sample–paste extract), 3.2; total N [% (w/v)], 2.2; total C [% (w/v)], 40.6; C/N ratio, 18.6; available P (g kg−1 OMF), 3.02; available K (g kg−1 OMF), 4.2; available Mg (g kg−1 OMF), 0.35; available Ca (g kg−1 OMF), 0.37; and available Na (g kg−1 OMF), 0.31. The 9 treatments were replicated four times, making a total of 36 plots. The experimental plot area was 12 m length × 1.10 m row width (13.2 m2 ) and about 0.3 m spacing between plants within rows. Cucumber hybrid Hayl® seeds were sown 0.3 m apart in each bed about 0.05 m away from the drip line at a depth of 0.04 m, drip irrigated with a one line and one dripper per plant giving 4.0 L h−1 . Salinity of irrigation water was 1.8 dS m−1 . Seeds were planted on 20 May and 3 September, and terminated on 6 August and 1 December in the 2014 summer and fall growing seasons, respectively. All treatments were separated as surrounded by 1m non-irrigated area. Plants were adequately watered in first irrigation. Irrigation treatments were initiated one week after full germination. The cultural, disease and pest management practices were the same as local commercial crop production. 2.2. Irrigation water applied (IWA) Cucumber plants were irrigated at 2 days intervals by different amounts of irrigation water applied. IWA was determined as a percentage of the potential evapotranspiration estimated according to class A pan equation (ETo ). The daily ETo was computed using the pan equation as follows Eq. (1) ETo = Epan × Kpan

(1) (mm day−1 ),

where: ETo = reference evapotranspiration Epan = evaporation from the Class A pan (mm day−1 ), and Kpan = Pan coefficient (FAO p. 24). Although, many approaches have been developed and adapted for the estimation of reference evapotranspiration, there is still a remarkable range of uncertainty related to which method. However, using some new models (i.e., mass transfer-based models) for suitable and specific weather conditions, the highest preciseness of estimating reference evapotranspiration could be obtained (Valipour, 2014a,b,c,d,e, 2015a,b). The crop water requirements (ETc) were estimated using the crop coefficient according to Eq. (2): ETc = ETo × Kc

(2) day−1 )

where ETc is the crop water requirement (mm and Kc is the crop coefficient. The duration of the different crop growth stages were 20, 30, 40, and 15 days for initial, crop development, midseason, and late season stages, respectively. Crop coefficients (Kc) of initial, mid and end stages were 0.60, 1.00 and 0.95, respectively, according to Allen et al. (1998). The amount of IWA to each treatment during the irrigation regime was determined by using Eq. (3): IWA =

A × ETc × Ii × Kr Ea × 1000 × (1 − LR)

(3)

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where IWA is the irrigation water applied (m3 ), A is the plot area (m2 ), ETc is the crop water requirements (mm day−1 ), Ii is the irrigation intervals (day), Kr is the covering factor, Ea is the application efficiency (%) (Ea = 85), and LR is the leaching requirements.

was compared using least significant difference test (LSD) at 5% level (p ≤ 0.05).

2.3. Measurements

3.1. Climatic conditions and volume water applied

Soil water content (SWC) was monitored at 0–15 and 15–30 cm depth at 2 days intervals using digital WET sensors (Moisture Meter type HH2, Cambridge, CB5 0EJ, UK). At the end of every season five individual plants were randomly chosen from each experimental plot and evaluated for plant height and leaf area measurements. Leaf area per plant was measured using digital planometer (Planix 7). Chlorophyll fluorescence was measured on two different sunny days using a portable fluorometer (Handy PEA, Hansatech Instruments Ltd., Kings Lynn, UK). One leaf (the same age) was chosen per plant from five plants from each treatment. A total of 15 measurements per treatment were made. Fluorescence measurements included: Maximum quantum yield of PS II Fv /Fm was calculated as; Fv /Fm = (Fm − F0 )/Fm (Maxwell and Johnson, 2000). Performance index of photosynthesis based on the equal absorption (PIABS ) was calculated as reported by Clark et al. (2000). Membrane stability index (MSI %) was determined using duplicate 0.2 g samples of fully-expanded leaf tissue (Rady, 2011). The leaf sample was placed in a test-tube containing 10 ml of doubledistilled water. The content of the test-tube was heated at 40 ◦ C in water bath for 30 min, and the electrical conductivity (C1 ) of the solution was recorded using a conductivity bridge. A second sample was boiled at 100 ◦ C for 10 min, and the conductivity was measured (C2 ). The MSI was calculated using formula (4):

Considering average data for the two experimental seasons, the difference between the two growing seasons in mean air temperature (Tmean ) was demonstrated (Table 1). Average maximum daily temperature during summer and fall seasons were ≈38.97 and 24.82 ◦ C and the minimum air relative humidity was usually ≈44% and 42, respectively. As a consequence, the amount of water applied via irrigation was higher in summer than in fall season in accordance with the high temperature conditions. The total amount of irrigation volumes applied during summer season to different treatments were 479, 407,335 and 307, 255, 209 mm for fall season for control, I80 , and I60 , respectively. The decrease in water application was different in both DI regimes. In comparisons with control plants, 20 and 40% less irrigation water was applied in the I80 , and I60 , treatments.



MSI (%) = 1 −

 C  1

C2

× 100

(4)

Relative water content (RWC %) was estimated using 2 cmdiameter fully-expanded leaf discs (Hayat et al., 2007). The discs were weighed (fresh mass; FM) and immediately floated on doubledistilled water in Petri dishes for 24 h, in the dark, to saturate them with water. Any adhering water was blotted dry and the turgid mass (TM) was measured. The dry mass (DM) was recorded after dehydrating the discs at 70 ◦ C until the constant weight. The RWC was then calculated using the following formula (5): RWC (%) =





(FM − DM) × 100 (TM − DM)

(5)

Shoots of plants were weighed to record their fresh weights, and then placed in an oven at 70 ± 2 ◦ C till a constant weight to measure their dry weights. 2.4. Yields, harvest index (HI) and water use efficiency (WUE) All plants of each experiment were used to measure the average number of fruits per plant and total yield per hectare. HI was determined as a ratio of fruit yield to total biomass production on a dry mass basis. WUE values as kg fruits yield m−3 of applied water were calculated for different treatments after harvest according to the following equation Eq. (6) (Jensen, 1983). WUE =

Fruityield(kgha−1 ) waterapplied(m3 ha−1 )

(6)

2.5. Statistical analysis The statistical analysis of the experimental data was carried out using ANOVA procedures in GenStat statistical package (version 11) (VSN International Ltd., Oxford, UK). Difference between means

3. Results and discussion

3.2. Soil water content Figs. 1 and 2 show the influence of the applied OMF levels, irrigation treatments and their interaction on the available water content in the root zone of the studied soil during summer and fall seasons, respectively. The application of organo mineral fertilizer under irrigation treatments increases the available water contents in soil. In both seasons, maximum moisture content (%, v/v) in 0–30 cm during all plant growth stages was recorded when 10 t ha−1 was applied (Figs. 1 and 2). Generally, the application of OMF led to an increase in soil water content by 7–11% with respect to control (OMF0 ). However, applications of the OMF’s slightly reduced the moisture content leading to a detectable increases in the soil available water. Thus, it can be stated that higher levels of OMF applications associated with greater holding capacities, and on very light soils this behaviour can reduce the risk of drought appreciably. The above – mentioned findings and statements are fallen in line with those reported by Hillel (1982), Rawls et al. (1991), Lopez et al. (2001), and Abd El-Maboud-Fayza (2004). Increased OMF generally produces a soil with increased water holding capacity and conductivity, largely as a result of its influence on soil aggregation and associated pore space distribution (Hudson, 1994). The addition of organic matter to the soil usually increases water holding capacity of the soil. This is because the addition of organic matter increases the number of micropores and macropores in the soil either by “gluing” soil particles together or by creating favourable living conditions for soil organisms. Certain types of soil organic matter can hold up to 20 times their weight in water (Reicosky, 2005). Hudson (1994) showed that for each 1-percent increase in soil organic matter, the available water holding capacity in the soil increased by 3.7 percent. Soil water is held by adhesive and cohesive forces within the soil and an increase in pore space will lead to an increase in water holding capacity of the soil. As a consequence, less irrigation water is needed to irrigate the same crop. 3.3. Effect of the organo mineral fertilizer (OMF) application rate on some physical and chemical properties after second season Effects of OMF on soil physical and chemical properties are illustrated in Table 4. Soil ECe and pH values significantly (p < 0.05) decreases with increasing OMF level. This could be attributed to the accumulation of active organic acids and sulphur in soil and the cation exchange capacity of humic acid which led to a reduction in pH values. The values of soil ECe tended to decrease probably due to

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Table 1 Monthly weather data at Fayoum, Egypt during 2014 summer and fall growing seasons. Tmin (◦ C)

Month

a

May June July August September October November

21.43 23.43 25.07 25.2 23.6 19.54 17.47

Tmax (◦ C)

Tavg (◦ C)

RHavg (%)

U2 ms−1

Rs MJm−2 d−1

ETo mmd−1

Ep mmd−1

37.36 39.48 40.92 38.1 36.6 30.79 29.13

29.39 31.45 33.07 31.6 30.1 25.11 23.32

41.68 42.73 41.22 49.5 43.7 43.03 40.53

1.90 1.50 2.0 1.60 2.1 2.0 2.2

14.36 15.35 14.26 12.65 11.38 8.61 7.81

10.16 10.74 10.66 9.90 8.64 6.61 4.63

6.49 8.3 7.5 6.8 5.8 4.18 2.54

a Tavg , Tmax , and Tmin are average, maximum, and minimum temperatures, respectively, RHavg is average relative humidity, U2 is average wind speed, Rs is average solar radiation, ETo is average potential evapotranspiration (Allen et al., 1998), and EP is average of measured pan evaporation class A.

Table 2 Some initial physical properties of the studied soils. Layer (cm)

0–20 20–40 40–60

Particle size distribution Sand (%)

Silt (%)

Clay (%)

Texture class

77.50 78.27 77.75

10.10 9.80 11.70

12.40 10.55 11.93

LS LS LS

Bulk density g cm−3

Ksat cm h−1

F.C (%)

W.P (%)

A.W (%)

1.58 1.67 1.61

3.22 2.53 1.55

25.33 24.50 22.09

9.73 11.21 12.13

15.60 13.29 10.16

F.C: Field capacity, W.P: wilting point, A.W: available water, LS: loamy sand and Ksat : hydraulic conductivity. Table 3 Some initial chemical properties of the studied soils. Depth (cm) 0–20 20–60 40–60

ECea dSm−1

pH

SARb

OM (%)

N (%)

P (mg kg−1 soil)

K (mg kg−1 soil)

8.54 7.92 8.21

7.85 7.74 7.78

11.07 12.27 1173

1.13 0.72 0.54

0.004 0.003 0.003

540.21 534.21 499.54

47.32 43.21 42.34

O.M: Organic content. a ECe means the average of electrical conductivity. b SAR means sodium adsorption.

the occurrence of the charged sites (i.e., COO− ) accounts for the ability of humic acid to chelate and retain cation in non-active forms. Elemental sulfur is biologically oxidized to H2 SO4 in soil under aerobic conditions. The oxidation of S to H2 SO4 is particularly beneficial in alkaline soils to reduce pH, supply SO4 to plants, make P more available, and reclaim soils (Orman and Kaplan, 2011). In this concern, Erdal et al. (2000) reported that application of elemental S to the soil resulted in 0.11–0.37 unit decrease in soil pH. In another study, soil pH was declined by 0.37–0.51 units after the applications of elemental S (Orman and Kaplan, 2000). The application of OMF significantly increase, soil organic matter content, total nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium concentrations compared with control treatment (MFO0 ) Table 4. Concerning the variations in soil bulk density among the different levels of OMF, data showed a gradual decrease in its values occurred with increasing OMF level, where the highest level (10 t ha−1 ) gave the lowest soil bulk density values. This positive effect could be attributed to the pronounced content of organic colloidal particles, which plays an important role for modifying distribution pattern of pore spaces in soil. These findings are in agreement with those obtained by Batey (1990) and Semida et al., 2014 who reported that soil bulk density was closely related to solid phase properties and pore spaces. Since the applied OMF possesses a positive effect for soil bulk density (i.e., reduced its value), hence it leads to increase total porosity of the soil. However the addition of OMF

to soil encouraged the creation of medium and micro pores (i.e., water holding capacity and useful pores) between simple packing sand particles, and in turn increasing capillary potential. The above mentioned case is more attributed to an increase in soil moisture content at field capacity (Table 4). Addition of organic materials to soil greatly increased water holding pores and decreased the area between the boundary lines of the hysteresis loops, such organic substances of humic acid have high ability to retain a pronounced content of water (Askar et al., 1994). These results are emphasized by Cheng et al. (1998) who illustrated that active organic acids decreased the loss of soil moisture, and in turn enhanced the water retention. 3.4. Membrane stability and relative water content Responses of membrane stability index (MSI %) and relative water content (RWC %) of cucumber plants grown under the effect of organo mineral fertilizer (OMF) and DI are presented in (Tables 5 and 6). Statistical analysis carried out on of membrane stability index (MSI %) and relative water content (RWC %) revealed a significant differences (p < 0.05) between season, and both of OMF and deficit irrigation treatments. MSI % and RWC % were decreased with increasing DI. Application of OMF found to modify the DIaffected membrane stability and RWC. The best results for these parameters were obtained from the OMF2 + I100 treatment. Relative

Table 4 Effect of the organo mineral fertilizer (OMF) application rate on some physical and chemical properties after second season. OMF level (t h−1 ) OMF0 OMF1 OMF2

ECe (dS m−1 ) A

8.02 7.28B 6.69C

Soil (pH) A

7.77 7.54B 7.38C

O.M (%) C

1.20 1.86B 2.34A

O.M means organic content and F.C means field capacity.

P (mg kg−1 soil)

N (%) C

0.003 0.007B 0.02A

B

526.24 610.14A 659.43A

K (mg kg−1 soil) C

42.34 53.67B 58.37A

Total porosity (%) B

33.66 38.21A 39.26A

Bulk density (g cm−3 ) A

1.54 1.49B 1.45B

F.C (%) 24.32B 27.67AB 29.67A

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Table 5 Means and standard errors for leaf area, dry matter, relative water content (RWC %), membrane stability index (MSI %), and harvest index (HI). Mean ± SE

Items

Dry matter (g)

Leaf area (dm2 )

RWC (%)

MSI (%)

HI (%)

Season SS FS

38.5 ± 2.24B a 43.8 ± 2.69A

64.8 ± 5.15A 74.5 ± 5.36A

72.07 ± 1.24A 73.01 ± 0.94A

49.09 ± 1.40A 50.39 ± 1.42A

0.69 ± 0.01B 0.71 ± 0.01A

Organo mineral OMF0 OMF1 OMF2

30.6 ± 3.36C 39.5 ± 2.76B 46.2 ± 2.98A

59.6 ± 6.34B 69.6 ± 6.28AB 79.5 ± 6.48A

65.02 ± 2.26C 72.83 ± 1.40B 75.56 ± 1.27A

45.63 ± 1.57B 49.92 ± 1.58AB 53.68 ± 1.54A

0.64 ± 0.03B 0.73 ± 0.02A 0.74 ± 0.01A

IWA I100% I80% I60%

60.0 ± 2.50A 61.2 ± 3.69A 40.9 ± 2.85B

83.0 ± 5.36A 79.8 ± 6.54A 59.2 ± 6.65B

75.86 ± 1.96A 73.77 ± 0.97A 67.99 ± 1.53B

52.66 ± 2.44A 49.43 ± 1.33AB 47.13 ± 0.79B

0.77 ± 0.01A 0.71 ± 0.01B 0.62 ± 0.03C

a

Treatment means with the same letter are not significant at the p ≤ 0.05 level.

Table 6 Mean square, F value, and probability for leaf area, dry matter, relative water content (RWC %), membrane stability index (MSI %), and harvest index (HI). Items

df

Mean square leaf area (dm2 )

Season (S) IWA OM S × IWA S × OM IWA × OM S × IWA × OM Exp. error

1 2 2 2 2 4 4 68

2129.4 5444 2873.2 7024 4102.3 1787.9 1303.3 813.8

F value and probability dry matter (g) 3563.5 1728.8 1841.4 1646.7 364.6 591.2 197.8 140.4

RWC (%) 12.05 299.3 181.29 12.89 4.84 8.21 5.81 18.04

MSI (%) 22.97 138.52 292.33 21.05 0.43 26.38 4.22 50.92

HI (%) 0.002 0.165 0.099 0.002 0.003 0.022 0.001 0.002

leaf area (dm2 ) ns

2.62 6.69* 3.53* 8.63* 5.04* 2.20* 1.60ns

dry matter (g) *

25.39 12.31* 13.12* 11.73* 2.60* 4.21* 1.41ns

RWC (%) ns

0.67 16.59* 10.05* 0.71ns 0.27ns 0.46ns 0.32ns

MSI (%) ns

0.45 2.72* 5.74* 0.41ns 0.01ns 0.52ns 0.08ns

HI (%) 0.98ns 88.19* 53.28* 1.09ns 1.74ns 11.70* 0.65ns

ns: nonsignificant. * Significant at the p ≤ 0.05 level.

water content (RWC), a measure of plant water status, reflecting the metabolic activity in plant tissues and used as a most meaningful index to identify the legumes with contrasting differences in dehydration tolerance (Sinclair and Ludlow 1986). Strong relationship were observed between RWC and plant biomass (fresh and dry weight) under the interactive effect of deficit irrigation, OMF and growing season, indicating that the water status in cucumber leaves is basically dependent on the respective shoot biomass. This also suggests that, cucumber plants having greater biomass can maintain higher water content in leaf, and thus can be more tolerant to drought. This parameter (RWC vs. plant biomass or growth) could be used as a convenient evidence to distinguish the specific and non-specific traits for drought tolerance in cucumber plants, similar to what has been reported for other crops in semi-arid environment and drip irrigation (Debashis et al., 2008).

3.5. Chlorophyll fluorescence Fig. 3 shows the combined effects of OMF and DI on Fv /Fm , Fv /F0 and performance index (PI) in summer and fall seasons. These attributes were significantly or insignificantly reduced gradually with the gradual increase in DI for both summer and fall seasons. However, applications of OMF have been shown to mitigate the adverse effects of DI on chlorophyll fluorescence in leaves of cucumber plants. The highest chlorophyll fluorescence values were achieved when adequate water was applied (I100 ) combined with 10 t ha−1 of OMF. Whereas the lowest values of chlorophyll fluorescence was observed in more severe DI treatment, DI60% and 0 t ha−1 of OMF. Higher chlorophyll fluorescence produced higher fruit yields and is also thought to increase sugar content in certain crops. Many reports suggested that using the analysis of chlorophyll fluorescence as a reliable method to determine the changes in the function of PSII under stress conditions (Broetto et al., 2007; Habibi,

2012). Lower photosynthetic activity could be a result in low photochemical efficiency of PSII, as revealed by its lower quantum yield (Pieters and Souki, 2005). Our results reported reductions in Fv /Fm , Fv /F0 ,and performance index (PI) under DI stress conditions, which were possibly due to the reduction in leaf photosynthetic pigments and RWC (Tables 5 and 6) needed for photosynthesis. These results are in parallel line with those of Gunes et al. (2007) and Habibi (2012) concluding that decreasing Fv /Fm values implies that photochemical conversion efficiency could indicate the possibility of photo-inhibition. The decrease in photosynthetic performance under water stress has also been observed by (Ben Ahmed et al., 2009) and (Habibi, 2012). These reports concluded a significant correlation between Fv /Fm and gs that confirmed the idea that stomatal closure that limits CO2 availability for dark reactions may be one of the mechanisms for photo-inhibition in DI-stressed leaves (Hirich et al., 2014). Water stress may also reduce photosynthesis rate through direct influence on the metabolic and photochemical processes in the leaf, or indirect influence on stomatal closure and cessation of leaf growth which results in decreased leaf surface area (Dejong, 1996)

3.6. Dry matter, harvest index (HI) and leaf area Dry matter, harvest index (HI), and leaf area were statistically analyzed as shown in (Tables 5 and 6). Harvest index (HI) and leaf area were not significantly affected by season. However, dry matter, harvest index (HI) and leaf area were significantly affected by irrigation quantity and OMF application. Results in (Table 6) showed that, a significant differences (p < 0.05) were observed for the interaction between DI and OMF. Additionally, dry matter and leaf area were also significantly (p < 0.05) affected by the interaction between DI, season and/or OMF application. The highest dry matter, harvest index (HI) and leaf area had been recorded when cucumber plants

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Table 7 Means and standard errors for fruit weight, no of fruits plant−1 , fruit length, yield and WUE. Mean ± SE

Items

Fruit weight (g)

No. of fruit plant−1

Fruit length (cm)

Yield (t ha−1 )

WUE (kg m−3 )

Season SS FS

94.4 ± 2.72 B a 100.3 ± 2.44A

6.94 ± 0.27B 9.02 ± 0.22A

11.57 ± 0.64B 11.40 ± 0.38A

15.94 ± 0.69B 19.76 ± 0.91A

5.10 ± 0.23B 8.58 ± 0.39A

Organo mineral OMF0 OMF1 OMF2

85.3 ± 2.99B 103.1 ± 3.71A 105.4 ± 2.43A

6.22 ± 0.36B 7.97 ± 0.36A 8.25 ± 0.40A

11.33 ± 0.61B 13.38 ± 0.46A 14.63 ± 0.82A

13.85 ± 0.79C 18.39 ± 0.83B 21.32 ± 1.14A

5.35 ± 0.4C 7.03 ± 0.39B 8.14 ± 0.51A

IWA I100% I80% I60%

104.2 ± 2.85A 99.7 ± 2.77B 88.1 ± 3.37C

8.47 ± 0.42A 7.50 ± 0.37B 6.47 ± 0.34C

14.04 ± 0.83A 13.58 ± 0.42A 11.17 ± 0.0.64B

20.53 ± 1.02A 18.13 ± 0.96A 14.89 ± 0.95B

6.19 ± 0.38B 6.86 ± 0.45AB 7.47 ± 0.54A

a

Treatment means with the same letter are not significant at the p ≤ 0.05 level

Table 8 Mean square, F value, and probability for fruit weight, no of fruits, plant−1 , fruit length, yield and WUE. Items

Season (S) IWA OM S × IWA S × OM IWA × OM S × IWA × OM Exp. error

df

1 2 2 2 2 4 4 198

Mean square

F value and probability

Fruit weight (g)

#. of fruit plant−1

Fruit length (cm)

yield (t ha−1 )

WUE (kg m−3 )

Fruit weight (g)

#. of fruit plant−1

Fruit length (cm)

yield (t ha−1 )

WUE (kg m−3 )

926.5 2482.2 3939.6 972.3 205.4 76.9 232.6 209.4

255.15 36.01 43.51 1.23 1.523 3.18 3.47 1.633

401.53 172.99 196.67 8.01 11.63 38.43 27.63 27.09

526.88 383.48 679.74 14.58 18.44 27.00 8.67 35.54

433.89 19.61 94.91 1.38 8.22 1.29 1.26 6.37

4.42* 11.85* 18.81* 4.64 * 0.98ns 0.37ns 1.11ns

156.23* 22.05* 26.64* 0.75ns 0.93ns 1.94ns 2.12ns

14.82* 6.38* 7.26* 0.30ns 0.43ns 1.42ns 1.02ns

14.83* 10.79* 19.13* 0.41ns 0.52ns 0.76ns 0.24ns

68.13* 3.08* 14.90* 0.22ns 1.29ns 0.20ns 0.20ns

ns: nonsignificant. * Significant at the p ≤ 0.05 level.

were subjected to full irrigation (I100 ) and received 10 t ha−1 of organo mineral fertilizer (OMF2 ) for tow season. However, the lowest yield was obtained under water-deficit conditions (I60 ) without organo mineral fertilizer (OMF0 ). Very few reports are available on the effect of organic amendments to soil on the dry matter, harvest index (HI) and leaf area. OMF treatments have affected on growth parameters such as harvest index (HI), leaf area and biomass production. Dry matter, harvest index (HI) and leaf area were significantly (p < 0.05) decreased under stressed treatment. However, organo mineral fertilizer influence on yield was more important under deficit irrigation conditions. Results indicated that dry matter of plant was affected negatively by deficit irrigation, confirming the results obtained by (Gonz alez et al., 2009; Hirich et al., 2014) who reported that dry weight of the whole plant as well as that of individual plants was higher in control than under drought. The obtained results are found to be in agreement also with those obtained by (Ofosu-Anim and Leitch, 2009; Amer, 2011). 3.7. Water use efficiency Data introduced in Tables 7 and 8 show that, WUE was significantly affected by growing seasons, DI, and OMF treatments. No significant differences were observed for the interaction among treatments.WUE recorded under FS (8.58 kg m−3 ) was higher than the corresponding WUE yielded under SS (5.1 kg m−3 ) by 68.24% (Table 7). This result may be due to two reasons; the first reason is that, IWA in SS (3177 m3 ha−1 ) was higher by 35.89% in comparison with that applied in FS (2338.1 m3 ha−1 ), due to increasing air temperature during SS as shown in (Table 1). The second reason is that, cucumber yield gained under FS (19.76 t ha−1 ) was higher than the corresponding cucumber yield gained under SS (15.94 t ha−1 ) by 24%. This result is in line with those recorded by (Rouphael and

Colla, 2005). With regard to the effect of AIW, data showed that the averages of WUE were 6.19, 6.86 and 7.47 kg m−3 for I100% , I80% and I60% , respectively; indicating that, the average value of WUE of I60% treatment was higher than those of the I80% and I100% treatments by 8.9 and 20.6%, respectively, (Table 7). These results are in agreement with those of (Yaseen et al., 2014; Al-Mefleh et al., 2012) who mentioned that increasing irrigation levels did not increase the WUE in melon. Fig. 4 shows the relationship between WUE under SS and FS was curvilinear (polynomial of 2nd order). This relationship could be expressed as follows: WUE = −2E − 07 × IWA2 + 0.001 × IWA + 1.8459(R2 = 1)forSS WUE = −6E − 07 × IWA2 + 0.0021 × IWA + 5.1068(R2 = 1)forFS where WUE is water use efficiency (kg m−3 ), and IWA is irrigation water applied (m3 ha−1 ). Data introduced in (Table 8) cleared that WUE was significantly (p < 0.05) affected by the OMF treatments. The highest WUE (8.14 kg m−3 ) value was obtained under OMF2 compared to 5.35 and 7.03 kg m−3 under OMF0 and OMF1 . The average of WUE values were increased by 17.5, 48.9 with increasing level OMF0 to OMF1 and/or OMF2 respectively. This result is in line with that of (Ouattara et al., 2006; Wesseling et al., 2009; Hirich et al., 2014). 3.8. Fresh fruit production and quality Fruit fresh weight, number, length, and fruit yield were statistically analyzed as shown in (Tables 7 and 8). They were significantly or insignificantly affected by season and both irrigation quantity and OMF level. Except for fruit weight, no significant differences were found for the interaction between season and DI. For given

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7

Fig. 1. Profile soil moisture (0–30 cm) content under irrigation and organo mineral fertilizer treatments in summer season.

irrigation quantity and growing season, fruit fresh weight, number, length, and yield were higher when adequate irrigation was applied (I100 ). The highest fruit yield (22 t ha−1 and 27.55 t ha−1 in summer and fall season, respectively) has been recorded when cucumber plants were subjected to full irrigation (I100 ) and received 10 t ha−1 of organo mineral fertilizer (OMF2 ). However, the lowest yield was obtained under water-deficit conditions (I60 ) without organo mineral fertilizer (OMF0 ). Cucumber yield under FS was 23.96% higher than that under SS (Table 7). The reduction of yield occurred in summer season may be due to higher temperature conditions compared to fall season. Results were in accordance with those obtained by Abd El-Mageed and Semida (2015) who found that yield, marketable yield, and fruit weight and number of squash were significantly higher in fall growing season compared with summer–growing season due to higher temperature. As data in Tables 7 and 8 the cucumber yield was significantly affected by IWA treatments. The maximum value of yield (20.53 t ha−1 ) was obtained when the plants were irrigated with the highest IWA (I100% ), while the minimum value of yield (14.89 t ha−1 ) was recorded for the lowest IWA (I60% ), (Table 7). Similar trend of results were obtained by (Ertek et al., 2006; Wang et al., 2009; He-xi et al., 2011) who reported that cucumber fruit yields increased with the increase of IWA. This result may be due to the sufficient available water in the soil under this level which led to an increase in both

Fig. 2. Profile soil moisture content (0–30 cm) under irrigation and organo mineral treatments in fall season.

water and nutrients absorption and consequently an increase in the metabolic mechanisms in plants leading to an increase in fruit weight and number of fruit plant−1 . Fig. 4 shows the relationship between IWA and cucumber yield under SS and FS was curvilinear (polynomial of 2nd order). This relationship could be expressed as follows: Y = −1E − 06 × IWA2 + 0.0102 × IWA − 11.115(R2 = 1) = forsummerseason

Y = −3E − 06 × IWA2 + 0.0174 × IWA − 10.437(R2 = 1)forfallseason where Y is cucumber yield (t ha−1 ), and IWA is irrigation water applied (m3 ha−1 ). Regarding the effect of OMF on fruit yield and quality, Tables 7 and 8 show that, maximum fruit yield was recorded under the application of 10 t ha−1 organo mineral fertilizer (18.74 t ha−1 for summer and 23.89 t ha−1 for fall seasons). Results indicated that organo mineral fertilizer of 10 t ha−1 and 5 t ha−1 significantly (p ≤ 0.05) increased fruit yield of cucumber by 53.94 and 32.78 as compared with control as average for two successive seasons.

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Fig. 3. Leaf chlorophyll fluorescence parameter of cucumber plants grown under different irrigation levels (I100 , irrigation with 100% of ETc; I80 , irrigation with 80% of ETc; and I60 , irrigation with 60% of ETc) and organo mineral fertilizer treatments in summer and fall seasons. (A) Maximum quantum efficiency of PSII (Fv /Fm ); (B) Potential photochemical efficiency (Fv /F0 ); (C) Performance index of photosynthesis (PI). Vertical bars represent means of 6 replications ± S.E (p ≤ 0.05). Columns marked by different letters are significantly different.

Organo mineral fertilizer influence on yield was more important under deficit irrigation conditions. Consequently, combining deficit irrigation and organo mineral fertilizer could be consider as a practical solution to compensate the negative effect of water stress, because organic matter improves soil water-holding capacity, increases nutrients availability for plant and decrees soil pH () (Ouattara et al., 2006; Wesseling et al., 2009; Sule, 2012). The favorable cucumber yield obtained in the current studies may be due to the positive combined effect of sulfur, compost and potassium humate (the components of the organo-mineral fertilizer). Sulfur plays an important role in decreasing soil pH, increas-

ing elements availability in soil for plant uptake, whilst compost improves water retention through their high water holding capacity and can bind organic compounds (Hirich et al., 2014). Potassium humate improves chemical properties of the soil via increasing the soil microorganisms which enhance nutrient cycling (Sayed et al., 2007). It also promotes plant growth by its effects on ion transfer at the root level by activating the oxidation-reduction state of the plant growth medium and so increased absorption of nutrients by preventing precipitation in the nutrient solution. Furthermore, application of the OMF significantly increase, soil organic matter, total nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium concentrations and

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9

References

Fig. 4. Regression analysis between irrigation water applied, cucumber yield and WUE under summer and fall season.

decrease soil salinity compared with control (MFO0 ) (Table 4). It also has showed a positive effect for soil bulk density (reduced its value), hence it leads to increase total porosity, and soil moisture content at field capacity. Results related to the effect of organo mineral fertilizers on yield presented here are in agreement with those obtained by Smith et al. (2001) where increasing the amount of compost in the pot experiment from 0 to 25 and to 50% increased yield, and number of seeds per pod significantly for common bean, and fresh mass for Swiss chard.

4. Conclusion Exposure of cucumber plants to deficit irrigation resulted in decreases in plant growth, RWC %, leaf photosynthetic pigments, harvest index and yields and increase, MSI % and WUE. Overall, the present study revealed that OMF application could overcome the adverse effects of water stress by increasing RWC, Chlorophyll a fluorescence acting as osmotic and metabolic regulators in a part as cell component stabilizers and by increasing soil water content. In this instance, organo mineral fertilizer appeared to be a viable substitute to decrease soil salinity (ECe), soil pH, and soil bulk density and increase field capacity, total porosity, soil nutrients content (i.e., N, P, and K), and soil organic matter content. Consequently, organo mineral fertilizer application enhanced plant growth and productivity. Results indicated that organo mineral fertilizer of 10 t ha−1 and 5 t ha−1 significantly (p ≤ 0.05) increased fruit yield by 53.49 and 15.93% with respect to control (OMF0 0 t/ha−1 ). The combine practice of deficit irrigation and organo mineral fertilizer appears to be very promising in maximizing crop water productivity.

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