Effect of Emulsifying Petroleum Derivatives, Water Deficit Treatment and Emitters Discharge on Dry Weight, Grain yield and Water use Efficiency of Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.)

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted in Qurnah district, Basrah province onclay soil to study the effect of six treatments of emulsifying petroleum derivatives withirrigation water by using emulsifying agent adding directly to soil surface, gas oil withtwo ratios of 0.3% (g3) and 0.5% (g5) w/w of soil dry weight, two admixture treatmentsof fuel oil and gas oil (1:1) with two ratio 0.3%(go3) and 0.5% (go5), fuel oil 0.3% (o3)and control treatment 0% (c) without any addition. The effect of water deficit factor alsostudied with two levels 0.85 (w1) and 0.65 (w2) of available water by using dripirrigation with two emitters; low discharge 5 Lhr-1 (Ld) and high discharge 15Lhr-1(Hd).The results showed that all emulsified derivative conditioners significantly increaseddry weight, grain yield and water use efficiency calculated for dry weight WUE (d) andgrain WUE (g) of sunflower compared with control treatment, especially at g5 and go5treatments which recorded the highest values. Soil capability for saving water andavailable water increased as a result of the addition of emulsified oil derivatives, whichcontributed to increase the interval time between irrigation periods and reduce thequantity of irrigation water with less value appearing at g5 and go5 under 65% waterdeficit treatment by using 15 Lhr-1 emitter discharge. Increasing emitter discharge from5 to 15 L hr -1, and increasing irrigation deficit from 0.65 to 0.85 led to increasing allgrowth parameters, except water use efficiency.