*2.1. Site Description*

The experiment was carried out over the winter of 2014–2015 on Kibbutz Yotvata, situated in the Arava Desert region of Israel. The commonest crops in this area are date palms, onions, and potatoes grown mainly in loamy sand (83% sand, 8% silt, and 9% clay) with a bulk density of 1.3 g cm<sup>−</sup>3. The saturated water content, field capacity and wilting point are 0.36, 0.13, and 0.05 (v v−1), respectively. The saturated hydraulic conductivity of this soil is 0.15 m h−1. This area has a dry desert climate and during the study period the mean precipitation and class-A evaporation pan were

approximately 32 mm and 620 mm, respectively. The annual temperature varied between 16 ◦C and 31 ◦C (Figure 1). Additional climatic information on the study area and season can be found in [14].

**Figure 1.** (**a**) Min. and max. Temperature; (**b**) cumulative evaporation (mm), and daily precipitation (mm) during the growing season starting from sowing date.
