| As the prevalence of clean cultivation in rainfed jujube orchards on the Chinese loess plateau, this paper investigated effects of vegetation covers and jujube branch mulches on soil water-holding capacity. Treatments included strip white clover cover + jujube branch mulching (JBM+SWC), whole jujube branch mulching (WJBM), strip white clover cover (SWC) and clean cultivation (CC). Three-year (2011—2013) results showed that vegetation covers and jujube branch mulches could improve soil structures, increase soil pores, and reduce soil bulk density. The order of soil water-holding capacity and specific water capacity at different soil suction stages with different treatments was as the following: JBM+SWC>WJBM>SWC>CC. The differences became mostly obvious at the high suction stage. Compared with CC, vegetation cover and jujube branch mulching treatments increased the saturation moisture content, field soil moisture content, and wilting point to some extent. JBM+SWC treatment resulted in the highest increases, which were 9%, 20% and 33%, respectively. |