Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1
M. Sc. Graduated of Agroecology, Department of Plant Production and Genetics, Faculty of Agricultural Science and Engineering, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran.
2
Associate Professor, Department of Plant Production and Genetics, Faculty of Agricultural Science and Engineering, Kermanshah, Iran.
Abstract
Drought is the most important abiotic stress in Iran, which leads to a significant decrease in plant yield. Crops need a lot of water. Evaporation and transpiration determines the plant's water requirement. Water is one of the rare resources in Iran, which is affected by the amount of rainfall. In Iran, the cultivation of maize has been greatly promoted in recent years, and its use in livestock and poultry feeding and industrial uses has been noticed. Sunflower, as the main source of vegetable oil in the world, is of special importance, which requires a lot of water. Plastic mulch is especially important in reducing water consumption in arid and semi-arid areas.
An experiment was conducted as a randomized complete block design with three replications at the Research Farm, Agricultural and Natural Resources Campus, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran in 2016. The plants used in this experiment were maize and sunflower. Treatments included plastic mulch between the rows, plastic coating on the plant (only in maize) and control (without plastic). Treatments were applied at the beginning of the experiment and before germination.
The plastic mulch between rows had the highest growth and yield of maize and sunflower than other treatments. In maize, plastic mulch between the rows had higher biological yield, harvest index, number of seeds per row, ear weight, and 100-seed weight than that of control, but there was no significant difference between plastic mulch between rows and plastic coating on the plant in terms of mentioned traits. There was no significant difference among treatments in terms of number of rows per ear, ear skin weight, and ear length. In sunflower, plastic mulch between rows had higher biological yield, head diameter, head weight, and 100-seed weight than control, and there were no significant differences between treatments in terms of harvest index, and number of seeds per head.
The results of this experiment show that by applying plastic mulch, especially between the planting rows and before the seeds germinate, while reducing the length of the growth period and better use of moisture, the seed yield of maize and sunflower can be increased compared to not using plastic mulch by 38 and 41 percent, respectively. Other possible reasons for increasing grain yield under the conditions of using nylon mulch included reducing evaporation and increasing soil temperature at the beginning of the growth period.
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