Combined Effects of Different Irrigation Regimes and Irrigation Intervals on the Growth, Yield and Water Use Efficiency of Greenhouse Cucumber (Cucumis Sativus L, African Giant Variety) in a Humid Tropical Zone
Creators: name: Donatus Okwudiri Igbojionu, Edwin Isiguzo Ahaneku, Macmanus Chinenye. Ndukwu, Okechukwu Oduma, Juliet Nnennaya Igbojionu, Patience Chinenye Ezema, Ezekiel Kayode Sole-Adeonye
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024

description: An experiment was conducted in a greenhouse at the Students Research and Demonstration Farm of the Federal College of Technology,Owerri, Nigeria during the periods, September, 2023 to November, 2023 and December, 2023 to March, 2024. A drip irrigation systemwas designed and installed in a greenhouse and operated under a hydraulic head of 1.5 m to evaluate the influence of full and deficitirrigation and irrigation intervals on growth parameters, fruit yield, yield components, and water use efficiency of cucumber (AfricanGiant variety) during two cropping seasons of September - November, 2023 and December, 2023 – March, 2024. The treatments werelaid out in a randomized block design (RBD) consisting of four levels of irrigation at 100%, 75%, 50% and 25% of ETc and three levelsof irrigation intervals of 1 day, 5 days, and 10 days(decade) with three replications. Results of analysis showed that irrigation treatmentssignificantly affected growth parameters, yield and yield components and water use efficiency of cucumber. In first season single factorsof irrigation amount or irrigation interval significantly (p< 0.05) affected plant height, leaf number, leaf area and stem diameter ofcucumber while in the second season, only the single factor of irrigation interval significantly (p < 0.05) affected plant height. In bothseasons, irrigation amount and irrigation interval as well as interaction between them very highly (p< 0.001) affected fruit yield. Singlefactors of irrigation amount or irrigation interval had very high significant (p < 0.001) interaction effect on cucumber fruit while theinteraction between these factors did not produce any significant effect on fruit length. Interactions between irrigation amount andirrigation interval highly (p <0.001) affected fruit number. Yield differences in both seasons were found to be non- significant (p(0.21617 > 0.05). Results obtained further showed maximum marketable yield of 151 t/ha and 123.1 t/ha were obtained with100% ETcdaily irrigation while the lowest 16.3 t/ha and 11.5 t/ha were obtained with 25 % ETc irrigation every 10 days. The irrigation water useefficiency ranged from 31 kg/m3 to 73 kg/m3 and 17.1 kg/m3 to 46.7 kg/m3 in 2023 and 2024 respectively while the water productivityranged from 34 kg/m3 to 81 kg/m3 in 2023 and 19 t/ha to 50.8 kg/m3 in 2024 respectively. This study shows that shorter interval withhigher irrigation level had better performance on all studied parameters, while the most stressed had low performance on all studiedparameters.In2023,yieldreductionsof23.8%,33%and39%occurredwith100%ETcirrigationevery5days,100%ETcirrigationevery10daysand75%ETcdailyirrigationrespectivelywhilein2024,yieldreductionsof15.9%,33.5%and29%werewith100%ETcirrigationevery5days,100%ETcirrigationevery10daysand75%ETcirrigationdailyrespectively.Fromtheresult,inanonwaterlimitingcondition,applicationof100%ETcirrigationevery5daystogrowcucumberiseconomicallyproductive.Nevertheless,whenwaterbecomesalimitingproductionfactor,irrigatingwith75%ETcdailycanbean optionforcucumberfarmersintheareaasitwillsavewaterandoptimizeyield.