Effects of arrangement of surge-root irrigation emitters on growth,yield and water use efficiency of apple trees

Six-year old apple trees were selected for field experiment. The objective of this study was to obtain the reasonable arrangement of surge-root irrigation emitters in apple orchards. There were three factors: the buried depth H( 25,40,55 cm),the horizontal distance L( 30,40,60 cm) between the emitters and the trunk of the experimental tree,and the number of the irrigation emitters N( 1,2,4). The effect of the arrangement of surge-root irrigation emitters on the growth,yield and irrigation water use efficiency( IWUE) of apple trees were studied in Northern Shaanxi where the irrigation quota takes 60%-75% of the field water capacity. The results showed that the arrangement of emitters for surge-root irrigation had a significant effect on apple tree yield and IWUE,especially,the yield and IWUE reached 28 388. 17 kg/hm2 and 16. 83 kg/m3 in treatment T3,respectively. At the same L and N levels( T1,T2,and T3),the yield and IWUE in treatment T3 were the highest,and the yields in treatments T1 and T2 were decreased by 26.22% and 31.48%,while IWUE is reduced by14.02% and 18.12% compared with T3,respectively. At the same H and N levels( T3,T4,and T5),the yield and IWUE of apple trees were decreased with increasing L level. Especially,when L was 30 cm( T3),the yield and IWUE were the highest. The same L and H levels( T3,T6,and T7) could promote the growth of apple trees when N was 2( T3). Compared with treatment T3,it was found that the increment of new shoots was decreased by 8.07%-18.71%,and the fruit diameter was decreased by 5.41%-9.11%. Therefore,two emitters should be arranged symmetrically on both sides of an apple tree,each was buried at a 40 cm depth and 30 cm away from the trunk of the tree to effectively improve the yield and IWUE of the apple tree in mountainous areas in Northern Shaanxi.