In this study, the effects of black and white colored water pillows on the yield and water use efficiency of 'Marathon' cucumber variety were investigated and compared with the drip irrigation (DI) method. Thise study examined yield per decare and per plant, number of fruits per plant and per square meter, and seasonal water consumption values. In terms of the evaluated parameters, water pillows provided statistically higher values compared to drip irrigation, except for the seasonal water consumption, where they provided lower values. Yield per hectare for white and black water pillows were found to be 124.67 and 126.53 tons, respectively, while the drip irrigation yield was 78.24 tons. Seasonal plant water consumptions were 419 mm for water pillows and 622 mm for drip irrigation. These results indicate that the water pillow irrigation method is more effective in terms of yield and water use efficiency than drip irrigation in greenhouse cucumber cultivation.

This study was conducted to determine the effects of water pillow irrigation, a novel irrigation method, on quality attributes (water soluble dry matter content, moisture, protein, ash and L-ascorbic acid) of hot red pepper. Fruit yield and quality obtained under water pillow (WP) irrigation were compared with those under furrow irrigation (FI). Experiments were carried out under semi-arid climate conditions of Turkey. The irrigation intervals were 5-day for FI and 7, 9 and 11-days for WP. The amounts of applied irrigation water were found to be 1718.1, 1160.2, 906.1 and 761.4 mm for FI, WP7, WP9 and WP11, respectively. Fruit water soluble dry matter contents varied between 9.5%-11.2%, moisture contents between 86.3-91.5%, pH between 4.40-4.80, protein contents between 1.32-1.38%, ash contents between 0.98-1.09%, and L-ascorbic acid contents between 105-118 mg 100 g-1. Although the amount of irrigation water used in WP11 treatment was 125% less than the amount used in FI treatment, no significant differences were observed in quality traits of both irrigation methods as well as capsaicin contents and extractable color of the samples.

In this study, effects of blue and black polyethylene mulches used together with drip irrigation on yield of Yagmur cucumber cultivar were investigated under greenhouse conditions and mulching treatments were compared with unmulched drip irrigation treatments. Experiments were conducted in a polycarbonate greenhouse in Kayseri province of Turkey in 2019. Throughout the growing season, 655 mm irrigation water was applied in drip+mulch treatments and 776 mm in unmulched drip irrigation treatments. Although 16% less water was applied in drip+mulch treatments, 37% more yield was obtained from drip+blue mulch treatments and 34% more from drip+black mulch treatments. The highest cucumber yields per decare (12296.7 and 11783.6 kg) were respectively obtained from drip+blue mulch and drip+black mulch treatments and the lowest (7771 kg) from unmulched drip irrigation treatments. The highest weed dry biomass (88.42 g m-2) was obtained from unmulched drip irrigation treatments. While the effects of mulching treatments on weed biomass were found to be significant as compared to unmulched treatments, blue and black mulches were not significantly different.