Abstract:Scientific and efficient irrigation management is the key to improving water productivity. To address the problem that there are significant differences in soil water and heat conditions before and after mulching, and it is still unclear how irrigation parameters affect crop growth and water consumption, field experiments were conducted at the National Field Scientific Observation and Research Station on Efficient Water Use of Oasis Agriculture in Wuwei of Gansu Province, using seed maize as the research object. Three dripper discharges D1 (2.0L/h), D2 (2.5L/h), D3 (3.0L/h), and five irrigation intervals P1 (6d), P2 (8d), P3 (10d), P4 (12d), P5 (14d) were designed to investigate the effects of different irrigation management schemes on the growth, yield, transpiration, and water consumption of seed maize. The results showed that higher dripper discharges and shorter irrigation intervals were more favorable for the growth and leaf area index of seed maize. Under D1 treatments, plant height, and leaf area index were increased firstly and then decreased with the increase of irrigation interval, and reached the maximum value at P2. The grain yield showed a significant quadratic relationship with the irrigation interval, and the maximum values under D1 and D3 appeared in P2. When the irrigation interval was 6~10d, the highest yield was obtained under the D2 dripper discharge. The daily-scale and hourly-scale liquid flow rates of seed maize single-plant were increased with the increase of dripper discharge and decreased with the increase of irrigation interval. The peak value of the hourly liquid flow rate in D3 treatment was increased by 85.88%~127.02% and 117.80%~151.89% compared with that in D2 and D1, respectively. When the irrigation interval was increased from P1 to P5, the peak value of the hourly liquid flow rate was decreased by 23.56%~31.48%. The transpiration of seed maize was increased with the increase of dripper discharge. Within a certain range (P1 to P4), increasing the irrigation interval significantly reduced the water consumption of seed maize throughout the growth period. At irrigation intervals not greater than P3, D2 had the lowest water consumption, which was 1.86%~4.14% lower than that of D1, and higher water productivity was obtained. The highest water productivity was obtained at P2 treatment for both D1 and D2 dripper discharge. The results showed that the dripper discharge of 2.5L/h (D2) and the irrigation interval of 8~10d were the optimal irrigation scheme for seed maize under film in dry areas for efficient water conservation, while a higher yield and water productivity could be achieved with an irrigation interval of 6~8d.