An investigation of sweet corn yield and water use influenced by different deficit irrigation methods and two sowing patterns.

In the water scarcity condition, using deficit irrigation and appropriate sowing patterns are the most strategies to improve water productivity. An experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of different sowing patterns (SP) and some deficit irrigation methods on yield, water use efficiency (WUE) and yield response factor (Ky) of sweet corn. The experimental design was a split plot in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Treatments were including two irrigation intervals (6-day S1, and 10-day S2,) as main plots, single-row SP (every furrow irrigation (EFI) I1, variable alternate furrow irrigation (VAFI) I2, and fixed alternate furrow irrigation (FAFI) I5) and double-row SP (EFI, I3, VAFI, I4 and FAFI, I6) as sub plots. Results have shown that the difference in grain yield between treatments was significant, but non-significantly between deficit irrigation treatments. Runoff in I1 and I3 treatments were higher than other treatments, and also FFI treatments were also more VAFI treatments, and therefore, the amount of absorbed water in VAFI was more than FAFI treatment. Runoff was reduced by 24% when the irrigation interval was increased from 6 to 10 days. Runoff in the double-row treatments was reduced and thus more water absorbed when they are compared to the single-row treatments. Relationship between crop evapotranspiration (ETc) and yield was obtained a relatively strong linear relationship (R2 = 0.80) and Ky was estimated 1.14. The WUE comparison of maize in different treatments have shown that alternate furrow irrigation with 50% saving of water is higher beneficial than EFI.