Abstract:
Triticale is one of the most important recently adopted drought-tolerant crops in semi-arid tropic
regions of the world including Oman. Eleven forage genotypes of triticale selected based on their
superiority for forage yield under normal irrigation water conditions were investigated for
response to treated wastewater and fresh water irrigation in respect of productivity during winter
seasons of 2012 and 2013 (November-January) under drip irrigation at Agriculture Research
Station, Rumais. The results showed that main effect of years was highly significant (p<0.01) for
all the characters studied. However, the effect of accessions was significant (p<0.05) for plant
height and number of tillers whereas that of water types was significant (p<0.05) for number of
tillers and green matter yield. Among the interactions, effect of year x variety was highly
significant (p<0.01) for only green matter yield while that of year x water type was significant
(p<0.05) for three characters namely plant height (cm), green and dry matter yields. Irrespective
of water types, both green matter and dry matter yields in 2013 (20.22 and 7.94 t/ha) was
significantly higher than those in 2012 (11.56 and 2.50 t/ha). In both years, the green and dry
matter yields were either non-significantly (p>.05) or significantly (p<0.05) higher under
freshwater conditions than under treated wastewater conditions. All the heavy elements were in
low concentrations in both plant and soil samples after crop harvest. The growth parameters of
triticale were stable during irrigation by treated wastewater with no adverse impact on chemical
characteristics in plant or water
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