Mulching increases water-use efficiency of peach production on the rainfed semiarid Loess Plateau of China

• We examined water balance in a rain-fed peach orchard in the semiarid Loess Plateau of China.
• Soil moisture, temperature and evapotranspiration were strongly influenced through mulching treatments.
• The plastic film mulched ridge with furrows (PFM) model was developed for rainfall harvesting.
• The PFM model was applied to a semiarid region in the Loess Plateau of China.

We examine the water-use balance, fruit yield and water-use efficiency of five-year-old peach trees with two different mulching systems: plastic film mulched ridge, with furrows (PFM) and straw mulched (SM). Compared with the clean tillage (CT) water management method, PFM increased, and SM significantly decreased, the soil temperature (P < 0.05). Both mulching systems increased the gravimetric soil water content (1.9–2.9%) with a reduction in the average annual evapotranspiration (ET) of 82.5 mm and 49.3 mm through SM and PFM, respectively. The water-use efficiency (WUE) was improved from 5.7 (CT) to 8.1 (PFM) and 9.0 kg m−3 (SM), resulting in a reduction in ET and an increase in fruit yield from 25.2 (CT) to 32.2 (PFM) and 32.5 t ha−1 (SM). Thus, both mulching systems could serve as models for peach production in semiarid rainfed areas, due to the high soil water content during bloom and fruit expansion.