The impact of irrigation distribution uniformity and mulching soil on vegetative growth and yield of sweet fennel and squash plants

Water shortage in agriculture is one of the adverse impacts of climate change which negatively affects global food production. Improving irrigation efficiency with mulching soil may optimize the condition by satisfing the water demand of food crops. Two experiments of the study were conducted at Dokki - Giza governorate, Egypt during winter and spring seasons of 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 under open field conditions. The study aimed to investigate the use of different number of PE laterals per growing bed (one irrigation line (OIL) and two irrigation line (TIL)) with different distances between the inline drippers (30 and 50 cm) on sweet fennel and squash to get the harmony distribution of irrigation in clay soil combined with mulching or with bare soil as the control. The field trails was performed using split plot design. The vegetative growth characteristics, yield parameters and N, P and K contents of sweet fennel and squash leaves were measured. The obtained results indicated, that increasing number of laterals from 1 to 2 laterals /bed while decreasing the distance between drippers from 50 to 30 cm led to an increase in the vegetative characteristics, yield parameters and N, P, K contents of sweet fennel and squash plants as a results of enhancing the soil moisture availability and nutrient uptake. The treatment TIL 30 followed by TIL 50 recorded the highest results of sweet fennel and squash. Applying a black PE mulch into the soil led to an increase in soil temperature during winter and spring seasons and enhanced the vegetative growth, yield parameters and N, P, K contents of sweet fennel and squash plants compared to bare soil. Mulching soil lead to increase yield of sweet fennel and squash by 35 % compared to yield of bare soil. Results of the study conclude that applying two laterals per growing bed and mulching increase the yield of fennel and squash and it is a better option to mitigate adverse impacts of climate change.