2019 ASHS Annual Conference

Water scarcity is becoming a major concern for food production especially in the arid and semi-arid regions like Texas High Plains, where average annual evapotranspiration is much higher than the average annual precipitation. In this situation, irrigation management strategies that can conserve water are needed for sustainable food production. Deficit irrigation is one of the strategies that have the potential to improve water use efficiency in water scarce areas. A field trial was conducted during summer 2018 at Quaker Research Farm of Texas Tech University to evaluate the effects of the deficit of irrigation and seeding rate on physiology, yield and water use of cucumber. The experiment was laid out in a split-plot design with four irrigation levels [100% ET_c (crop evapotranspiration), 80% ET_c, 60% ET_c, and 40% ET_c] as main plot factor and two seeding rates [SR1 (0.3 m plant to plant distance) and SR2 (0.6 m plant to plant distance)] as the subplot factor with four replications. The yield was maximum in 100% ET_c irrigation treatment, but it was not significantly different from 80% ET_c irrigation treatment. A significant reduction in yield was observed for 60% ET_c and 40% ET_c irrigation treatments and it was 20.47% and 47.69% lesser compared to 100% ET_c, respectively. The irrigation water use efficiency was higher in 80% ET_c followed by 60% ET_c, 100% ET_c, and 40% ET_c. Stomatal conductance and leaf area index did not differ significantly among irrigation treatments. The effects of seeding rate on yield and physiological parameters were also not significant. Results indicate that 80% ET_c irrigation amounts could be used for successful cucumber production without a significant reduction in yield; however, more research is needed to support these findings.