Water stre i one of the most important abiotic stresse affecting plant growth and development. The use of mulches might be one way to decrease water consumption and crop losses during droughts. This experiment was done to study the effect of water stress and the use of crop residues as organic mulches on pomegranate cultivar ‘Rabab’. The experiment was set up as factorial experiment in completely randomized design with two factors, including mulch application at five levels (chicory, ziziphora and Corydalis residues, wood chips and non-mulched) and irrigation level (100 or 50 % field capacity) and 3 replications. The results showed that mulching decreased surface evaporation rate and improved soil water content. Water stress decreased shoot and root dry weights, chlorophyll a to b ratio, chlorophyll index and carotenoids and phenolic compound contents in pomegranate seedlings, while ion leakage and ascorbate peroxidase activity increased under water stress conditions. Catalase activity, relative water content, proline content, chlorophyll fluorescence and root volume was not affected by water stress at the 50 % level. The reduction in chlorophyll a to b ratio, relative water content and phenolic compound contents and increased ion leakage was inhibited when applying organic mulch on the soil surface. Overall, it may be concluded that under limited irrigation condition, organic mulching will be beneficial for soil water conservation. In this study, chicory and wood chips mulches seems more favorable for reducing surface evaporation and preventing unfavorable changes in physiological parameters of pomegranate seedlings. Key Words Crop residues, water stress, evapotrairation, water consumption