Iranian Journal of Applied Ecology

Since the amount of water in the arid and desert regions is limited, the existing water resources utilization methods as well as irrigation methods in these areas are different from other areas. For this purpose, an experiment was conducted as split plot in a completely randomized design with three replications in the Isfahan University of Technology. In this experiment, the amount of irrigation (5 and 10 liters) as the main factor, irrigation method (surface and subsurface irrigation) as the sub-factor, soil amendment (fertilizer 75% and 15% (control) and zeolite 25% and 15%) as the sub-sub factors, and plant height, basal area, relative chlorophyll index and stomata conductance of Melia azedarach as dependent variables were considered. The results showed that the highest height was obtained in 5 liters of subsurface irrigation with 25% zeolite, which was significantly different from the other treatment compounds (P<0.05). A 5-liter surface irrigation treatment with 25% zeolite could be recommended to achieve the maximum stomatal conductance (P<0.05). The 5-liter subsurface irrigation treatments with 15% zeolite and 15% fertilizer had the highest relative chlorophyll content, respectively. Therefore, it could be inferred that using zeolite provided the sufficient and continuous moisture for the plant, resulting in improved plant growth traits.