Water volumes and mulches affect plant growth, leaf nutrient status and orchard soil mineral content of sweet orange cv. Mosambi

Day-by-day increasing irrigation water scarcity requires the application of water-saving irrigation techniques to sustain agriculture production. A two-year field investigation was conducted during 2018 to 2020 to determine the effects of various mulches and irrigation volumes on the growth, leaf chemicals and soil properties of one-year-old sweet oranges ( Citrus sinensis ) cv. Mosambi. The study included three irrigation schedules, viz.100% ET c (I 1 ), 80% ET c (I 2 ), and 60% ET c (I 3 ), and five different mulches were used, viz. without mulch, white polythene, coriander straw, dry grass and black polythene mulches, replicated thrice. Results demonstrated that drip irrigation with 100% ET c and mulching with black polythene mulch significantly increase the plant growth attributes like height of the plant (28.64%) (30.31%), rootstock girth (36.61%) (37.90%), plant canopy spread (E-W and N-S) (EW- 63.82%, NS- 63.87%) (EW- 67.56%, NS- 67.90%) and leaf area (2.4%) (2.34%). Furthermore, plant leaf chlorophyll content (2.41 mg g -1 ) (2.41 mg g -1 ) and leaf mineral content such as N (2.39%) (2.40%), P (0.16%) (0.165%), K (1.57%) (1.59%), Ca (47.34 g kg -1 ) (47.80 g kg -1 ), Mg (4.54 g kg -1 ) (4.57 g kg -1 ), Fe (120.51 g kg -1 ) (123.15 g kg -1 ) and Zn (39.00 g kg -1 ) (37.84 g kg -1 ) were noted to be significantly ( p ≤ 0.05) higher in plants that received 100% (were ET c (I 1 ) and mulching with black polythene mulch (M 1 ) treatment. Taken together, the results suggested that treatments I 1 and M 1 have the potential to maximize plant growth, leaf chemicals and soil nutrients of sweet orange ( Citrus sinensis ) cv. Mosambi plants.