The experiment was carried out in the Rostov region in 2011–2013. The aim of the research was to determine an optimal irrigation regime and level of mineral nutrition at potato growing in terms of resource-saving. Three variants of irrigation regime were under study: intensive, water-saving, and rainfed. Mineral nutrition background was presented as the whole rate of fertilizers (N120P90K60), half rate (0.5 NPK), and without fertilizers. The primary tillage was moldboard plowing. Agricultural methods used in the experiment corresponded to zonal recommendations. When conducting the field experiments, conventional techniques were used. It is established that intensive irrigation facilitates increasing potato yield in 2.3 times comparing to rainfed variant. In water-saving variant the decreasing of potato yield by 16.9 % in average comparing to intensive irrigation was marked. At the same time the savings of irrigation water were 1140 m³/ha. The most effective use of irrigation water was marked in water-saving variant. Herein one tone of yield increase requires 55 m³ of irrigation water. The same index under intensive irrigation was 120 m³. The least coefficient of water consumption for potato 110 m³/t was also obtained in water-saving variant. The highest yield increase due to fertilizers was at the whole rate applying. In this case yield increase reached 42.5 % comparing to the variant without fertilizers. The most effective use of fertilizers was at half rate applying, where one kilogram of applied fertilizers provided 26.4 kg of additional production. The same index in the variant with the whole rate of fertilizers didn’t exceed 24.2 kg. Intensive irrigation facilitated increasing the efficiency of fertilizer use in 4.19–4.25 times comparing to rainfed conditions of potato growing. At the water scarcity it is recommended to apply water-saving variant for potato irrigation, which provides the irrigation event in the period of ‘budding – beginning of flowering’.
Keywords: potato, irrigation regimes, levels of mineral nutrition, yield, saving of irrigation water, coefficient of water consumption, return from fertilizers, resource-saving.
