Banana production irrigated with treated effluent in the Canary Islands

The Giant Cavendish variety of bananas was grown for two years under four d ifferent microirrigation (drip) water quality treatments. The treatments co nsisted of fresh groundwater (FW), fresh groundwater (70%) mixed with secon dary effluent (30%) (FW+SE), desalinized secondary effluent (70%) mixed wit h secondary effluent (30%) (DSE+SE), and desalinized secondary effluent (DS E). The experimental design was a Randomized Complete Block (RCB) design wi th three replications and four treatments. The production was under greenho use conditions, typical for the Gran Canaria, Canary Islands. Plants were g rown following typical water and fertilizer application used by the best gr owers on the Island. Productivity of banana plants, estimated as mean bunch weight, was significantly affected by water quality Plants irrigated exclu sively with desalinated secondary effluent showed significantly lower yield than those irrigated using fresh water Desalinized secondary effluent had most of the salts removed; however this treatment had the highest levels of SAR. There was no significant difference in yield in the two higher salini ty treatments and the 30% addition of secondary effluent did not negatively impact plant growth or banana yield as compared with the FW treatment.