Application of Superabsorbent and Mulch on Some Traits of African Marigold (Tagetes erecta) under Irrigation Intervals

Water scarcity is an important obstacle to the development and expansion of urban landscape in the arid and semi-arid regions of the world. Nowadays organic and artificial materials can be used to reducing water consumption without reducing the quality and quantity of urban landscape. In order to study of the effect of some mulch type on the reduce of irrigation interval on a popular seasonal plant in the middle east, African marigold, an experiment was carried out during 2016-2017 in Mashhad city, Iran. In this experiment, two treatments including mulch type (typical soil as control, palm fiber mulch, plastic mulch and superabsorbent) and irrigation intervals (3, 6 and 9 days) were applied. Some morphological, biological, physiological and biochemical traits were evaluated. Results indicated that superabsorbent could significantly increase the most of measured traits. Palm fiber mulch also improved plant height, flower number and dry shoot weight. In the most of traits, 3 day irrigation interval indicated a significant increase in comparison with 6 and 9 days but in plants height, flower number and photosynthetic rate there was no significant difference between 3 and 9 day irrigation intervals.  These findings show that superabsorbent and at the next level, palm fiber mulch with 9 day irrigation interval can be suggested for African marigold in the arid and semi-arid cities.