Effects of Water Infiltration to Soil and Irrigation Intervals on Yield and Water Use Efficiency on Eggplant (Solanum Melongena L.)

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the Effects of water infiltration to soil in increasing yield and water use efficiency on eggplant (Solanum Melongena L.) in a field trial at Astaneh Ashrafiyeh, Guilan, Iran during 2009 were studied. Experiment was conducted out in split plot based on randomized completely block design with three replications. Irrigation levels were the main-plots consisted of three levels (no irrigation, 6 days interval and 12 days interval). The results of this study showed that among irrigation treatments, the highest amounts of all studied traits of eggplant included of plant height, fruit length, fruit diameter, water use efficiency and fruit yield were observed in 6 days interval irrigation with total water use of 441 (mm). On the other hand, water stress resulted in significant decreases in these characteristics. Results of this research show that irrigation in 6 days interval had the highest fruit yield 34.8 ton ha-and average final infiltration was 9.4 (cm/day) and In addition, results of interaction effects comparison indicated that water use efficiency varied from 4.36 to 11.6 kg.m-3 and the highest amount of WUE recorded in plants irrigated every 6 days. Volumetric moisture variations in different depths indicated that the moisture content in upper soil layers such as 0-20 cm and 20-40 cm was less than those of 40-60 cm and 60-80cm layers which was due to water absorption in the first and second layers by the plant.