Response of Sapota Productivity to Conjunctive Stimulus of Irrigation Regimes and Mulching

An experiment was carried out to assess the combined impact of irrigation regimes (40%, 60%, 80% and 100% of crop water requirement), mulch material (wheat straw, black plastic mulch and no mulch) on sapota crop during the year 2010-11 to 2015-16 (up to 9 years of age). FRBD with three treatment replications was adopted. Crop water requirement was estimated using reference evapotranspiration data using FAO-56 Penman Monteith approach and crop co-efficient for different crop growth stages. Irrigation water was applied at 40%, 60%, 80% and 100% of the crop water requirement. Maximum crop water requirement was observed 4.29 mm (88.67 L) per day during 19th week (May month) and minimum of 1.60 mm (12.34 L) per day during 51st week (December month) for 100% crop water requirement at peak growth stage. Black plastic mulch yielded 23.38% higher yield compared to no mulch treatment followed by wheat straw mulch (12.21%) at irrigation regimes 60% of crop water requirement. Water use efficiency and water productivity were 51.27% and 51.29% higher compared to no mulch.