A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF TRADITIONAL AND MODERN IRRIGATION SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT FOR IRRIGATING DATE PALM TREES IN NEWLY RECLAIMED LANDS

field experiment was conducted in newly reclaimed sand soil to find out the most efficient combination between irrigation system and deficit irrigation management can be used for date palm trees “Zaghlol cultivar”. Results revealed that the average water requirements of date palm trees gradually increased from 1504, 1279, 1128 and 978 for drip to 2522, 2143, 1891, and 1639 m3/fedSeason for bubbler irrigation system in combination with 100, 85, 75 and 65% deficit irrigation treatments respectively. Data indicated that EC1:5 in dS/m gradually increased with decreasing deficit irrigation levels from 100 to 65% and with increasing soil layer depth to 60-90 cm either in parallel or perpendicular direction of drip or bubbler irrigation lines. While opposite result was observed for soil moisture distribution. Results showed an evident decrease in crop yield as affected by water stress associated with decreasing deficit irrigation treatments from 100 to 85, 75 and 65 % by about 167, 155, 153, 151 for drip and 181.5, 168, 172 and 169 kg/Tree for bubbler irrigation systems. Data revealed that water use efficiency increased from 0.10 for 100 % DI to 0.93, 0.83 and 0.64 m3/kg for 85, 75 and 65 % deficit irrigation under drip and slightly decreased from 0.16 for 100 % DI to 0.14, 0.12 and 0.11 m3/kg for bubbler irrigation systems respectively. It could be concluded that the best method for managing irrigation of date palm trees "Zaghloul cultivar" in the study area is the irrigation using bubbler system with 75% deficit irrigation treatment. This combination treatment gave acceptable yield of about 172 kg/tree with saving a substantial amount of Irrigation water reached to about 25% (1891 m3/fed or 22 m3/tree) with WUE of about 8.09 kg/m3.