Pedosphere 15(5): 576--584, 2005
ISSN 1002-0160/CN 32-1315/P
©2005 Soil Science Society of China
Published by Elsevier B.V. and Science Press
| Evapotranspiration, yield and crop coefficient of irrigated maize under straw mulch |
ZHANG Xi-Ying , CHEN Su-Ying, PEI Dong, LIU Meng-Yu and SUN Hong-Yong |
| Shijiazhuang Institute of Agricultural Modernization, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shijiazhuang 050021 (China). E-mail: xyzhang@ms.sjziam.ac.cn |
| ABSTRACT |
| Maize (Zea mays L.), a staple crop grown from June to September during the rainy season on the North China Plain, is usually inter-planted in winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) fields about one week before harvesting of the winter wheat. In order to improve irrigation efficiency in this region of serious water shortage, field studies in 1999 and 2001, two dry seasons with less than average seasonal rainfall, were conducted with up to five irrigation applications to determine evapotranspiration, calculate the crop coefficient, and optimize the irrigation schedule with maize under mulch, as well as to establish the effects of irrigation timing and the number of applications on grain yield and water use efficiency (WUE) of maize. Results showed that with grain production at about 8 000 kg ha-1 the total evapotranspiration and WUE of irrigated maize under mulch were about 380-400 mm and 2.0-2.2 kg m-3, respectively. Also in 2001 WUE of maize with mulch for the treatment with three irrigations was 11.8% better than that without mulch. In the 1999 and 2001 seasons, maize yield significantly improved (P = 0.05) with four irrigation applications, however, further increases were not significant. At the same time there were no significant differences for WUE with two to four irrigation applications. In the 2001 season mulch lead to a decrease of 50 mm in the total soil evaporation, and the maize crop coefficient under mulch varied between 0.3-1.3 with a seasonal average of 1.0. |
| Key Words: crop coefficient, maize, mulch, water use efficiency |
| Citation: Zhang, X. Y., Chen, S. Y., Pei, D., Liu, M. Y. and Sun, H. Y. 2005. Evapotranspiration, yield and crop coefficient of irrigated maize under straw mulch. Pedosphere. 15(5): 576-584. |
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