Abstract

Cultivation environment can be effective on the degree of limitations in crop evapotranspiration and yield, as a result of water shortage and salinity. The purpose of this study was to determine and compare the impact of different irrigation regimes (daily, weekly and every two weeks) combined with different water salinities (0.8, 2.5, 5.0 and, 7.0 dS m^-1) on eggplant yield (Y) and evapotranspiration (ETc) in outdoor and greenhouse cultivation. Daily ETc values were measured by diurnal weighting of microlysimeters throughout the growing season (from May 19th to September 5th, 2012 and June 1st to September 22nd, 2013) placed in a plastic greenhouse and outdoor basins. Measurements showed apparent variations between different irrigation regimes×water salinity treatments, during the early growing season in both years. Both water deficit and salinity factors had significant effects on ETc, ECe, Y, fruit diameter and shoot dry weight in both environments. The applicability of Doorenbos-Kassam linear crop-water production function along with Maas-Hoffman salt tolerance model was investigated in the greenhouse and outdoor conditions. The Ky coefficient obtained for outdoor and greenhouse eggplants treatments were 0.97 and 1.03 in the first year and 0.91 and 0.93 in the second year, respectively. Higher sensitivity of greenhouse eggplants to salinity was later demonstrated for both years, obtaining higher values of b and lower values of ECe_threshold in the greenhouse eggplants.

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