The Effect of Micro-Irrigation with Ground Water and Waste Water on Broccoli Yield and Elements Uptake

Due to the accurance of droughts events in recent years and the role of water as an effective factor in agricultural management, optimized use and proper exploitation of available water resources for example unusual resource like treated wastewater in irrigating agricultural products, is not only a necessary topic, but also helps water resource preservation and partial compensation of agricultural water deficiency, thus resolving detrimental effects of unmethodical discharge. The aim of the present research, was to study the effects of various states of two different qualities of irrigation water (urban treated wastewater and ground water) and N.P.K fertilizer in 6 treatment steps including: W (ground water or control treatment), TS (urban treated wastewater), W-F (ground water with N.P.K fertilizer), TS-W (50% urban treated wastewater and 50% ground water), TS-F (urban treated wastewater with N.P.K fertilizer) and TS-W-F (50% urban treated wastewater and 50% ground water with N.P.K fertilizer) with sub surface drip irrigation (Tape) method on performance broccoli and accumulation of macro and micro elements, heavy metals and organic compounds was conducted in 2010 in Bajgah region of Fars Province. The result indicated considerable effect of use of urban treated wastewater on economical and biological broccoli performance and proved that urban treated wastewater can be supplied the required nutrient instead of chemical fertilizer. The use of urban treated wastewater mixed with ground water and fertilizer, in addition to increase the economic broccoli performance, led to the increase of the growth of other plant organs. The results indicated that in TS-W and TS-W-F treatments (50% urban treated wastewater and 50 ground water, compared with TS and TS-F treatments (irrigated by urban treated wastewater), adding fertilizer caused an remarkable increase in broccoli economical performance. Application of urban treated wastewater had an considerable effect in production and accumulation of organic compounds such as vitamin C, vitamin B6 and protein in yield and caused an increase in the accumulation macro and micro elements, heavy metals (such as lead and cadmium) in broccoli, but it had not effect on accumulation of nickel in broccoli.