LAUSR

Abstract This study was conducted to compare two water-saving techniques: deficit irrigation (DI) and partial root-zone drying (PRD) with full irrigation (FI) on potato (Solanum tuberosum L.). These techniques were studied using drip irrigation in an arid region of Saudi Arabia in 2014 and 2015. Five irrigation treatments, i.e., FI (control treatment where the full amount of irrigation water was applied to both sides of the plant), DI70, DI50 (70% and 50% of the FI treatment, respectively, supplied to both sides of the plant), PRD70, and PRD50 (70% and 50% of the FI treatment, respectively, supplied to a single side of each plant in an alternating manner), were applied. The dry and wet sides of the plant in the PRD treatments were switched weekly. The soil water content was the highest in the FI treatment followed by DI70 and PRD70 and DI50 and PRD50 thereafter in 2014 and 2015. The fresh weight of the vegetative parts for both the FI and PRD70 treatments (average of 14.7 Mg ha−1 and 11.9 Mg ha−1, respectively) was significantly (p