Water deficiency and mulching effects on valencia orange trees

الملخص EN

-This study was carried out during 2014/2015 and 2015/2016seasons to improve water use efficiency on ten years old Valencia orange trees (Citrus sinensesL.) budded on sour orange rootstock (Citrus aurantium L.) under conditions of sandy loam soil at Belbeis region – El Sharqia Governorate, Egypt.

The study aimed to improve water use efficiency by using different levels of water supply (100, 85 and 70% of ETc.

i.e.

Evapotranspiration) and mulching soil surface under drip irrigation system by Nile river water to determine the most effective treatment.

The data reveal that, increasing water supply level combined with soil mulching enhanced total number of buds, number of leaf buds, percentage of leaf buds, number of flower buds, number of opened buds, opened buds percentage, leaf free water content, chlorophyll a, carotenoids, total number of inflorescences, number of leafy inflorescences, number of solitary flowers per twig as well as yield in both seasons.

The most effective economic treatment was soil mulching × 85% Etc which produced 5.18 and 5.33 kg fruit for each one cubic meter of irrigation water in the first and the second seasons , respectively.