Effects of Water Use Consumption in Drip Irrigation and Surface Irrigation Methods on Yield and Quality Characteristics of Date Palm (C.V piarom)

This study was carried out on six-year-old Date palm (c.v Piarom) in Iran (Hormozgan province) from 1996-2001.In this study, two rates of water use and two irrigation systems were compared in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) in a factorial arrangement with three, where each treatment consisted of four date palm trees. The following four treatments were tested: A1= drip irrigation method; A2= surface irrigation method; B1= water use based on 75% evaporation of class A pan; B2= water use based on 100% evaporation of class A pan. The rate of water use was calculated based on ETP class A pan method by the following formulas:ETo= Ep ×KpETc= ETo × KcI=ETc × S / ŋ Eto = Reference evapotranspiration Ep = Pan evaporation; Kp = Pan coefficient Kc = crop coefficient I = Irrigation requirement S = surface ETc = Crop evapotranspiration Ŋ= efficiency of irrigation system. Irrigation interval in drip irrigation was two days and in surface irrigation, weekly. The results showed that there were no significant effects of treatments on the yield or quality of fruit such as pH, TSS, total sugar, reducing sugar, sucrose, moisture percentage, or dry matter percentage.  The results of this study showed that water requirement in drip irrigation method based on 75% evaporation of class A pan, drip irrigation method based on 100% evaporation of class A pan, surface irrigation method based on 75% evaporation of class A pan, and surface irrigation method based on 100% evaporation of class A pan were equal to 23.7, 42.65, 57.46, 100.45 m3/tree/year, respectively. Also the results showed no significant effects of treatments on the yield or quality of fruit except for titration acidity that was (significant at P<0.01).So due to many advantages of drip irrigation method such as more efficient use of water, low cost, easy- to -schedule management, easy to automate, etc; it is recommended as the best irrigation method for date palm plantation in southern Iran.