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 (I₁), 80% ET_c (I₂), and 60% ET_c (I₃), 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 (I₁) and mulching with black polythene mulch (M₁) treatment. Taken together, the results suggested that treatments I₁ and M₁ have the potential to maximize plant growth, leaf chemicals and soil nutrients of sweet orange (Citrus sinensis) cv. Mosambi plants.