RESUMEN
Soil moisture is a key factor affecting jujube growth in the semiarid Northern Shaanxi Province. The impacts of different engineering and mulching measures on soil moisture were investigated via in situ measurements in a typical dryland jujube orchard. The results showed that the mean soil moistures (0-180 cm) of scale-like pit + branch mulching, scale-like scale + straw mulching, and soil moisture of scale-like pit with no mulching were increased by 14.2%, 9.4%, and 4.8% than control, respectively. Different measures, especially for the scale-like pit + branch mulching, significantly increased the soil moisture in the soil surface (0-20 cm) and the main root zone layer (20-100 cm) during the jujube growth stage. Individual precipitation events had great impacts on soil moisture in the 0-100 cm, while its effect on soil moisture in deep layers was not apparent. There was no significant difference among the soil moistures in different soil depths of scale-like pit with no mulching when compared with the control under high, medium, and low soil humidity conditions. This study indicated that using the clipped jujube branches as mulching could both save materials cost and achieve the goal of reserving more water in dryland jujube orchard in north Shaanxi Province.