Water use of an irrigated peach orchard treated with different plastic mulching films under Mediterranean climate

Abstract

Abstract Italy is the third producer in the world of peach orchards. The semi-arid climate in Mediterranean area is particularly suitable for late ripening peach cultivars, but they are more water demanding due to the longer period of the fruits on the plants. Considering the climate change scenarios with limitation in water resources, water saving techniques must be employed in order to optimize the use of irrigation water. Strategies for reducing agricultural water use include the use of different mulching materials spread onto the surface of soil for reducing soil evaporation and improving soil moisture preservation. The advantages of using plastic mulching film has been studied in an irrigated peach orchard for three season (2021–2023), evaluating the effects on yield, water use efficiency (WUE) and water productivity (WP) under clean tillage without mulch (P0) and two plastic photo-reflective plastic mulching films, white (P1) and silver (P2). The effective water loss by transpiration was measured by thermal dissipation method, obtaining the seasonal transpiration used for estimating the water use efficiency as the ratio between the transpiration and the water supply by irrigation and precipitation: in mean of the three seasons, WUE of P0 was 47% and 44% lower than P1 and P2, respectively. An average increasing of yield of 18% was observed under plastic mulching treatments, with an increasing in the WP of the mulched treatments from the first to the third year of the trial when the WP was almost identical for P1 and P2, and 39% greater than P0.