Irrigation Management of Subsurface Drip Irrigation of Palm Trees under Arid and Semiarid Regions

In order to investigate the effect of water quantity in subsurface drip irrigation on water use efficiency of palm yield and yield components, and determining suitable irrigation treatments for three different date cultivars, a split plot experiment design in a randomized complete block design with three replications were applied for three cropping years (2013-2016), at Behbahan Agricultural Research Station. The applied irrigation water in three levels based on 75, 100 and 125 percent of water requirement in the main plots and three cultivars of Kabkab, Khasi and Zahidi dates were compared in sub plots. The irrigation level of 75% with 0.646 kg of dates per 1 cubic meter of water in terms of water use efficiency as compared to the other two levels of irrigation showed a significant superiority. The Khasi cultivar with 83.9 pips and 29.2929 fruits in the cluster ranked first. The irrigation level of 125% with 11.1% were higher in fruit moisture, and 100% and 75% irrigation levels with 9.6% and 7.8% moisture content were the next. The irrigation level of 125% for Kabkab cultivar with a volume of 11.1 cubic centimeters were ranked first. Optimizing water use and reducing it to 10606 cubic meters per hectare in irrigation level of 75% water treatment will save water consumption. If the basis for comparing the amount of water used in 100% water treatment is considered, then the use of subtropical drip irrigation reduces water consumption by 2509.6 and 5019.2 cubic meters per hectare, respectively, compared to 100 and 125% water requirements.