TOMATO RESPONSE TO TYPES OF PLASTIC MULCH AND DRIP IRRIGATION LEVELS

Abstract

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is the most popular vegetable in México and the world. This study was conducted at CENID-RASPA INIFAP, Gomez Palacio, Durango, and it evaluated the response of tomato to combinations of mulching type, irrigation criteria and depth of drip tape. Fruit yield and water use efficiency (EUA) of tomato cv. Yaqui were recorded. Twelve treatments resulting from a 3×2×2 factorial arrangement were tested and distributed in a completely randomized experimental design. The first factor, type of mulching had three levels: black, silver and no mulch. The second factor consisted in two irrigation criteria: 90 and 100 % of the reference evapotranspiration (ETo). The third factor, depth of the drip tape, included tape buried 25 cm deep and superficial tape. Highest fruit yield values were obtained on mulched treatments, and they were 69.5 % higher than the treatment without mulching. Treatments at 90 % ETo (45 cm) yielded 14.6 % higher than treatments at 100 % ETo (51 cm); the difference was significant. In contrast, fruit yield was not statistically different between drip tape depth. The effect of plastic mulching, measured as water use efficiency, showed that an average of 7.03 kg m^-3 was obtained with plastic mulching compared to 4.13 kg m^-3 for the treatment without mulching; this significant difference represented a 70.2 % increase. Irrigation levels changed water use efficiency values significantly: under the drier criterion (90 % ETo) WUE increased by 26.7 % irrigation at 100 % ETo.