Agronomic performance of sorghum crop under irrigation and vegetal mulch strategies

Abstract

A vegetal mulch mitigates water stress in sorghum crop. In this context, the objective of this study was to evaluate the use of water regimes in soil with and without vegetative mulch on the agronomic performance of sorghum cultivation. The experiment was conducted from July to October 2021, at the University of International Integration of Afro-Brazilian Lusofonia (UNILAB), Redenção, Ceará, Brazil. The study was carried out in a completely randomized design in a 4 × 2 factorial scheme, with five replicates. Four irrigation strategies (IS1, control – without reducing the optimal irrigation depth throughout the cycle, based on crop evapotranspiration – ETc; IS2 – 20% reduction in the optimal irrigation depth from 60 days after sowing – DAS; IS3 – 40% reduction in the optimal irrigation depth from 70 DAS; IS4 – 60% reduction in the optimal irrigation depth from 80 DAS) in combination with soil vegetative mulch (with and without mulch) were evaluated. Irrigation strategies with 100% of ETc (EI1) and with 20% reduction of the optimal irrigation depth applied at 60 DAS (EI2) in soil with the presence of vegetable mulch was more efficient in terms of the number of grains per panicle and panicle length. Treatment without water restriction (100% of ETc) in the presence of soil mulch, promoted greater grain mass yield per panicle, panicle mass, and productivity of the sorghum crop.