Plant stress index (PSI) based irrigation scheduling of wheat in Punjab, India

A field experiment was caried out over a period of two years (2022-23 and 2023-24) at Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, Punjab with eight irrigation treatments (based on PSI, soil moisture depletion & critical growth stages) and four replications in RBD Design. The different irrigation levels had an impact on plant growth, parameters contributing to yield, grain and straw production, as well as irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE). Among all the PSI based irrigation treatments, schedule irrigation at 0.50 PSI was found the best irrigation level for growing wheat with significant grain yield (5.67 t ha-1), IWUE (0.092 t ha-1 cm) and gave 11.16% water saving over I50% FC (irrigation as per farmer practices). To schedule irrigation as per the soil moisture depletion approach, irrigation levels I50% FC and I75% FC result in maximum grain yield over PSI & critical growth stage-based irrigation treatments, but this practice does not support sustainable wheat production in water-scarce regions. Therefore, irrigation can be tailored for wheat crops based on 0.5 PSI in water-scarce and water-abundant regions of Punjab.