Deficit Irrigation in Consecutive Cycles on Yield and Water Use Efficiency in ‘Tommy Atkins’ Mango Trees

Abstract

SUMMARY:We aimed to understand two strategies of deficit irrigation and their effects on yield and water-use efficiency (WUE) in 'Tommy Atkins' mango trees, for three consecutive cycles. In the experiment with Regulated Deficit Irrigation (RDI), the treatments were: T1, full irrigation at every fruit development stage, 100% of ETc; T2, 100% of Etc at stages II and III Rootzone Drying (PRD) for the three crop stages: T1, 100% of ETc, conventional dripping irrigation; T2, 100%; T3, 80% of ETc; T4, 60% of ETc and T5, 40% of ETc. As for the treatments T2, T3, T4 and T5, the side to be irrigated was alternated every 15 days. At the end of 3 production cycles, we observed a reduction in productivity when RDI was applied at SI.The water-use efficiency was higher in the first cycle in relation to the third cycle under RDI.The PRD with 80% of ETc maintains the productivity and with 40% of ETc, increases WUE. KEYWORDS: evapotranspiration, fruit production, Mangifera indica IRRIGAÇÃO COM DÉFICIT EM CICLOS CONSECUTIVOS