Water pillow irrigation versus drip irrigation with regard to growth and yield of tomato grown under greenhouse conditions in a semi-arid region

Increasing world population entails an increase in agricultural productions. Climate change and resultant global warming points out more efficient use of soil and water resources. Irrigation is the most significant input in agriculture to increase yield levels. Therefore, efficient water use is a critical issue in irrigation practices to have 'more crop per drop'. Water pillow is a new irrigation method with quite high irrigation water efficiency. In this study, efficiency of water pillows irrigation method was investigated in tomato irrigation under greenhouse conditions and results were compared with drip irrigation. Amount of applied irrigation water was measured as 416.3 mm in water pillows and 798.7 mm in drip irrigation. The value in water pillows was 52% less than drip irrigation. The total yield was 360.11 t ha−1 in water pillows and 306.62 t ha−1 in drip irrigation method. Average yield per plant was 11.31 kg in water pillows and 9.63 kg in drip irrigation. The differences in yields of treatments were found to be significant (P < 0.05). Weed development was observed in drip irrigation, but not observed in water pillows. Physico-chemical analyses on tomatoes from water pillows and drip irrigation revealed that tomatoes irrigated with water pillows had better pH, titration acidity, brix, total dry matter and color values than the tomatoes irrigated with drip irrigation.