Seasonal water use of date palms in the central region of Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted to investigate the response of date palm trees, of Seleg cultivar, to different water regimes (50, )00 and )50% of pan evaporation rate), using three irrigation methods: basin, bubbler and trickle irrigation systems. The study was conducted during four successive years (1991 through )994). The results of this study demonstrated the general trend of yield increase as irrigation quantity increases. The maximum yield was produced from palm trees irrigated with the trickle irrigation system followed by the basin method. The water use efficiency was found to be maximum for trickle irrigated plots followed by the basin plots.