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Field experiments were conducted to study the effects of drip irrigation regimes on potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) growth, tuber yield and quality, and water use efficiency (WUE) when grown under plastic mulch in an arid area of Northwestern China in 2008, 2009 and 2010. The 2008 experiment consisted of a drip irrigation check without plastic mulch and four different drip irrigation frequency treatments with plastic mulch: once every day, once every 2 days, once every 4 days, and once every 8 days. In 2009 and 2010 the drip check treatment without mulch was irrigated at -25 kPa soil matric potential (SMP) during three potato development stages and four different SMP drip irrigation strategies were compared during the potato development stages (using plastic mulch): Si (-25 kPa SMP during the three development stages), S2 (-25 kPa SMP during tuber initiation and bulking and 35 kPa SMP during maturation), S3 (-25 kPa SMP during tuber initiation and maturation and 35 kPa SMP during bulking), S4 (-35 kPa SMP during the three development stages). Plastic mulch negatively affected tuber yield, WUE, and tuber quality. In the presence of plastic mulch, tuber yield, specific gravity, starch content, and vitamin C content seemed to be enhanced as the irrigation frequency increased, although the differences were not statistically significant. Irrigation frequency did not affect WUE for potato grown under plastic mulch. Analysis of plant height, tuber yield and WUE showed that a drip irrigation threshold of -35 kPa SMP led to obvious water stress for potato growth in this arid area. Under plastic mulch in 2010, S2 was the optimum drip irrigation regime because of the significantly higher yield than S3 and S4, the highest WUE and significantly firmer tubers than any of the other irrigation regimes tested. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.