Cucumber (Cucumis sativus, L.) water use efficiency (WUE) under plastic mulch and drip irrigation

To study the effect of two types of plastic mulch (transparent and black) with drip irrigation on water requirement and Cucumber (Cucumis sativus, L.) yield, in addition to their effect on Maturity time. Trials were carried out at Teezen Research Station, Hama Agricultural Research Center, GCSAR, Syria, during 2009-2010 growing seasons using complete randomized block design with three replicates. Soil characteristics were followed too because they reflect the effects of plastic mulch. Treatments were transparent mulched drip irrigation (DI + TM), black mulched drip irrigation (DI + BM), drip irrigation without mulching (DI) and surface furrow irrigation (SI). The results of the study indicated that (DI + TM) treatment excelled all other treatments at yield and water use efficiency (WUE), where its yield was 63.9 t ha−1, and (WUE) was 0.262 t ha−1 mm−1, while (DI + BM) treatment produced 57.9 t ha−1, with a (WUE) of 0.238 t ha−1 mm−1. However cucumber yield and WUE declined in the remaining treatments of no mulch (DI) and (SI) to reach 44.1 t ha−1 with 0.153 t ha−1 mm−1 and 37.7 t ha−1 with 0.056 t ha−1 mm−1, respectively. The results showed that (DI + TM) treatment gave the highest soil temperature and moisture during both of the seasons in comparison to (DI + BM). This enhanced its vegetative growth and almost doubled its productivity compared to the SI treatment.