Hydrology (Aug 2022)

Soil Nutrient Status and Morphometric Responses of Guava under Drip Irrigation and High-Tech Horticultural Techniques for Sustainable Farming

  • Manpreet Singh Preet,
  • Rajesh Kumar,
  • Mohammad Valipour,
  • Vijay Pratap Singh,
  • Neha,
  • Ashok Kumar Singh,
  • Rashid Iqbal,
  • Muhammad Umar Zafar,
  • Rashmi Sharma,
  • Shiv Vendra Singh,
  • Arpna Kumari,
  • Tatiana Minkina,
  • Walid Soufan,
  • Turki Kh. Faraj,
  • Allah Ditta,
  • Ayman El Sabagh

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/hydrology9090151
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 9
p. 151

Abstract

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In the current study, efforts were made to standardize fertigation for providing the recommended doses of fertilizers (RDF) i.e., 300, 260, and 200 g/plant/year for N, P, and K, respectively, together with optimization of irrigation scheduling so that guava plants could avoid the frequent episodes of nutritional stress, water scarcity, or overwatering. The experiment’s execution was confined to a three-factor randomized block design, with a total of 19 treatments that were replicated four times. Briefly, these treatments included drip irrigation and nutrient (NPK) application through fertigation dosages (RDF; 100, 80, and 60%) with and without silver-black plastic mulching. Different applied fertilizer dosages, together with different levels of irrigation and soil mulching, had a significant impact on the guava plant’s vegetative, reproductive, and nutritional aspects. Under silver-black plastic mulch, drip irrigation at cumulative pan evaporation (CPE) 80 and 100% of the prescribed dosage of fertilizers, better macronutrient availability in the soil, and improved plant development were recorded (M1DI2F1). Overall, using drip fertigation to provide NPK fertilizers close to the root zone increased the availability of nutrients to the plants as compared to the traditional fertigation and irrigation methods. Thus, this sustainable high-tech horticultural approach could be analyzed for its efficacy or applied to other crops to obtain adequate economic outcomes.

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