Dr. Mandeep Singh GillHarpreet Kaur2024-05-312024-05-312024Harpreet Kaur (2024). Impact of water quality on plant physiological parameters, fruit quality and soil properties in kinnow mandarin (Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation). Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab, India.https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810209544The increasing demand for irrigation water to secure food for ever growing global population with declining fresh water resources carves the path for introduction of alternative ways of using saline water. Management of saline water through desalination or blending with low salinity canal water may be a viable strategy for Kinnow irrigation in semi-arid regions having saline ground water and scarce canal water. Long-term irrigation with saline water causes accumulation of salts in the rhizosphere, inducing increased osmotic potential of the soil solution thus impairing plant water and nutrient uptake. A long term on-going drip irrigated field experiment being conducted under the NHM sponsored project “Centre of excellence for utilization of brackish water for fruits and vegetable production in S-W Punjab” at PAU RRS Bathinda was selected to study the effect of different qualities of irrigation water namely canal (WQ1), desalinated (WQ2), tube well (WQ3) and mixed CW: TW (WQ4) water on growth , yield and soil properties under Kinnow mandarin orchard. The results showed that highest fruit yield and other fruit quality parameters was obtained with WQ1, followed by WQ2 and WQ4, while lowest with WQ3. Plant growth and photosynthetic activities were highest under canal water irrigation which was followed by the photosynthetic activities observed in desalinated water. Highest electrolyte leakage was observed in tube well irrigation and consequently the highest enzymatic activities (SOD, POD and CAT) were recorded in tube well irrigation. The concentration of sodium and chloride ions in leaves were increased significantly with increasing salinity of irrigation water. The pH and electrical conductivity of soil increased significantly in WQ3 and WQ4 in comparison to WQ1 and WQ2 before and after the fertigation. Saline water (WQ3 and WQ4) increased the salinity build up away from the drip lateral to a greater extent than non-saline water (WQ1 and WQ2). Soil SAR values were also found to be higher in WQ3 and WQ4. However EC, pH and SAR values of soil with WQ2 were found to be quite similar to that of WQ1. Available P, K and organic carbon content of soil decreased with the increasing salinity of irrigation water. To conclude, desalinated water or mixing canal and tube well water in equal proportion can be used for irrigation to Kinnow mandarin under drip system in case of scarcity of good quality irrigation water.EnglishThesis