Brief pre- and post-irrigation sprinkling with fresh water reduces foliar salt uptake in maize and barley sprinkler irrigated with saline water

Abstract

Brief pre- and post-irrigation sprinkling treatments using freshwater were tested to determine if these practices could reduce the uptake of salts through leaves when saline water is used to sprinkler irrigate crops. Maize and barley were sprinkler irrigated 2 to 3 times per week for 30 min with saline water (4.2 dS m−1, 30 mmol L−1 NaCl and 2.8 mmoles L−1 CaCl2 for maize and 9.6 dS m−1, 47 mmoles L−1 NaCl and 23.5 mmoles L−1 CaCl2 for barley) in separate experiments with plants grown in pots outdoors. The soil surface of all pots was covered to prevent salinization of the soil by the sprinkling water. One half of the sprinkled plants was grown in nonsaline soil to study the effects of pre-wetting and post-washing when ion uptake was primarily through leaves. The other half of the sprinkled plants was grown in soil salinized by drip irrigation, in order to evaluate the effects of pre-wetting and post-washing when Na+ and Cl- uptake was through both leaves and roots.

Post-washing with freshwater (5 min) reduced the leaf sap concentrations of Cl- in saline-sprinkled plants from 56 to 43 mmol L−1 in maize and from 358 to 225 mmol L−1 in barley (averages for plants grown in nonsaline and saline soil). Na+ concentrations in leaf sap were reduced from 93 to 65 mmoles L−1 (maize) and from 177 to 97 mmoles L−1 (barley) by the post-washing. Pre-wetting had a small effect on ion uptake through leaves, the only significant reduction in seasonal means being in leaf Na+ concentrations for plants grown in nonsaline soil. Pre-wetting and post-washing, when combined, reduced leaf Cl- concentrations to levels similar to those of nonsprinkled plants grown in saline soil; however, Na+ concentrations in leaves remained 3.5 times (maize) and 1.5 times (barley) higher than those of nonsprinkled plants. When pre-wetting and post-washing were not applied, sprinkled barley plants grown in saline soil had grain yields which were 58% lower than nonsprinkled plants grown in saline soil, but the reduction in grain yield was only 17% when the freshwater treatments were given. We conclude that a brief period of post-washing with freshwater is essential when saline water is employed in sprinkler irrigation. By comparison, the benefits from pre-wetting were small in these experiments. ei]T J Flowers