Cowpea growth and production under different levels of available water and soil cover

This study aimed to evaluate the productive performance of cowpea, cv. ‘BRS Pujante’, under the influence of different levels of available water in the soil with and without mulch. The experiment was conducted under plastic tunnel conditions at the Federal University of Campina Grande, Campus of Pombal, from December 2014 to mid-March 2015. The experimental design was completely randomized in a 5 x 2 factorial scheme, which corresponded to levels of available water (AW) of 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100%, maintained after irrigations of the soil, with (WM) and without (WOM) mulch, with 10 treatments and 4 replicates, totaling 40 experimental units. Plants were analyzed for: leaf area, number of pods, number of grains per pod, 100-grain weight and production per plant. The growth and production components of ‘BRS Pujante’ cowpea are influenced by the levels of available water and soil cover. The highest growth and production of ‘BRS Pujante’ cowpea plants were observed at the mean levels of 80 and 100% of available water in the soil with and without mulch, respectively. Mulching reduces water consumption of ‘BRS Pujante’ cowpea plants, promoting satisfactory production at lower levels of available water in relation to the soil without mulch.