Water scarcity is increasing in the world. There is a need to adopt irrigation management practices that can help to conserve water and sustain crop production in such water-limited areas. Potato productivity is generally influenced by irrigation systems and levels, which depend on the soil type. In order to do so, the study aims to assess the vegetation and yield of potato varieties under a smart irrigation system to find out the best management of the irrigation scheduling for improving the growth and yield of potato crops.
In this concern, two field experiments were conducted in two successive summer seasons of 2020 and 2021 at the Experimental farm of the National Research Centre in El-Nubaria, El-Behira Governorate, North of Egypt, to investigate the effects of four irrigation levels (120, 100, 80 and 60% ETc) under two drip irrigation systems (surface drip irrigation (SDI) and subsurface drip irrigation (SSDI)) on three potato varieties (Spunta, Hermes and Cara). A program of observations and measurements was developed, concerning vegetative growth, yield, and yield components of the potato crop.
The results indicated that all the studied growth aspects were significantly increased with increasing the irrigation levels applied during both growing seasons. Also, the results showed that SSDI showed superior upon SDI with all vegetative and yield growth characteristics. Regarding the response of some potato varieties to irrigation systems and levels, results revealed that the highest value for an average tubers weight and yield /plant was recorded with Spunta followed by Cara and Hermes.