Effects of Irrigation Programs Formed by Different Approaches on the Yield and Water Consumption of Black Cumin (Nigella sativa L.) under Transition Zone in the West Anatolia Conditions

Abstract

This study was carried out to determine the effects of different irrigation programs obtained by pan evaporation and water balance methods on some yield and vegetative parameters and water consumption of black cumin in the experiment field located in the center of Cobanlar District in Afyonkarahisar, Turkey during 2013 and 2014 growing seasons. In the experiment, the irrigation treatments were formed with 3 different irrigation intervals (SA3: 3 days, SA5: 5 days, and SA10: 10 days) and 4 different irrigation water levels as 0% (I0: non-irrigated) 50%, 75% (I50, I75: deficit irrigation) and 100% (I100: full irrigation) of the cumulative evaporation amount measured from class A pan in the first year and, of the required water amount to replenish the available soil moisture to the field capacity in the 0.60 m soil depth in the second year. The highest and the lowest evapotranspiration (ET) values were determined as 387.6 mm in SA3-I100 and as 166.9 mm in I0, respectively. The highest seed yield was obtained in SA5-I100 with an amount of 1700.6 kg ha-1 while the lowest seed yield was obtained in I0 with an amount of 722.2 kg ha-1. The highest total water use efficiency (WUE) and irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE) values were calculated from SA5-I50 as 5.11 kg ha-1 mm-1 and 4.80 kg ha-1 mm-1, respectively. While the yield response factor values (ky) were obtained as 0.75 (SA3), 0.80 (SA5) and 0.50 (SA10) for different irrigation interval, the mean ky value was determined as 0.68 according to all treatments of both years. Since the values of the yield and vegetative parameters and ET in same irrigation programs formed by two different methods were close to each other, the both methods can be used for irrigation of black cumin.