Effect of Irrigation Levels and Plastic Mulch on Summer Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L. Moench.)

An experiment was conducted to study the effect of irrigation levels and plastic mulch on okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L. Moench.) during summer season in 2017 at Instructional Farm, CAET, JAU, Junagadh. The effect of four drip irrigation levels viz.; 1.0 ETc (I1), 0.8 ETc (I2), 0.6 ETc (I3) and 0.4 ETc (I4) in conjunction with three mulch conditions; silver black plastic mulch (M1), black plastic mulch (M2) and no mulch (M3) were studied on growth and yield response of okra. The experiment was laid out in split plot design taking twelve treatments replicated thrice with mulching as the main plot factor and irrigation levels as the subplot factor. Results of the study indicated that irrigation levels and mulching significantly influenced weed intensity, dry weight of weed, plant height, no. of fruits per plant, weight of fruits per plant and yield per hectare as compared to drip alone. Weed parameters were recorded lowest in combination of 0.4 ETc with silver black plastic mulch. The treatment combination of 0.8 ETc with silver black plastic mulch recorded maximum values of plant height (69.13 cm), fruits per plant (26.60 nos), weight of fruits per plant (441.67 g), crop yield (22424.24 kg/ha) (174.92 % higher than no mulch treatment) and water use efficiency (57.59 kg/ha-mm). The treatment combination of 0.8 ETc drip irrigation level with silver black plastic mulch was found most economical and resulted in highest crop yield with best water use efficiency.