Effect of Periodic Deficit Irrigation at Different Fruit Growth Stages on Yield and Fruit Quality of "Anna" Apple Trees.

Abstract

This study was carried out during two successive growing seasons 2016 and 2017 at a private farm located at El-Nubaria, Beheira governorate, Egypt to study the effect of irrigation deficit at different growth stages on some vegetative growth parameters, yield and fruit quality of "Anna" apple trees. The obtained data showed that, the highest mean values for studied vegetative growth parameters such as shoot length, shoot diameter, leaf area and specific leaf weight , yield (kg/tree -ton/fed.), fruit set percentage and some fruit characters (fruit weight, fruit size, fruit length, fruit diameter and fruit shape) were recorded under control treatment (conventional irrigation). Meanwhile, vegetative growth parameters recorded the lowest values under T 6 treatment, while the lowest values of fruit set percentage and yield were recorded under T 5 . Fruit weight, fruit size, fruit length and fruit diameter recorded the least values with T 7 treatment. Concerning, productivity of irrigation water (PIW), whereas the highest values were obtained by T 6 treatment, T 5 treatment gave the lowest values. Fruit firmness, TSS and anthocyanin content in fruit peel of "Anna" apple were significantly affected by irrigation treatments, where, T 7 treatment recorded the highest values for measured fruit firmness and TSS, while T 6 treatment recorded the highest values for anthocyanin. The lowest values for measured fruit firmness, TSS and anthocyanin content were found under control condition (standard irrigation). Hence, we can recommend apple growers to apply T 3 treatment(12.972 m 3 /tree/year = 4540.2 m 3 /fed./year) to save 25%of irrigation water, as well as, to obtain about the same fruit set and yield of control trees.

Deficit Irrigation Strategies on Tree Physiological and Chemical Properties: Treatment Effects, Prediction Based Model Analyses and Inter-Correlations

“…'Ninfa', only the most severe water deficit treatment lowered SVG considerably (Figure 6B). Many previous studies showed that yearly vegetative growth significantly decreased in the DI treatments on apricot [11,18,66], pomegranate [43], lemon [67,68], peach and pear [6,61,[69][70][71][72], apple [7,73], sweet cherry [49,[74][75][76], and olive [77]. Consequently, the RDI technique can be a useful tool to manipulate vegetative growth [78,79].…”

“…For improving the water use efficiency, a suggested irrigation strategy for fruit trees is the deficit irrigation (DI) practice especially in the arid and semiarid regions [4][5][6]. The DI practice is based on the knowledge of tree phenological stages and their responses to DI [2,7]. In order to study the benefits of DI, the crop water productivity (CWP) was proposed, which is the ratio of the yield and the consumed water by the crop [4].…”

“…In order to study the benefits of DI, the crop water productivity (CWP) was proposed, which is the ratio of the yield and the consumed water by the crop [4]. Previous studies evaluated the effects of DI on tree vegetative growth, flowering, and fruit yield of various fruit tree species such as apples [7], peaches and pears [6,[8][9][10], plums [11,12], apricot [13][14][15][16][17][18][19], mango [20], and orange [21,22]. In these previous studies, the use of DI practices improved water use efficacy, maintained the fruit yield and decreased the cost of tree pruning, vegetative growth, as well as irrigation times and quantities.…”

“…Therefore, a regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) was proposed during S2 stage of fruit trees e.g., [5,8,23]. Applications of an RDI during the intensive shoot growth stages reduced vegetative growth by decreasing shoot length and trunk diameter [7,11,17]. Therefore, a separation between shoot and fruit growth stages was proposed for applying the RDI strategies without or with minor negative effects on fruit yield [5,8,23].…”

Effect of integrated fertilization with inorganic, organic fertilizers in presence of Enterobacter ludwigii local strain on growth, yield and fruit quality of Anna Apple Trees

“…"Anna" apple is considered one of the leading apple cultivars in Egypt, being of low chilling requirements. It needs chilling about 300-350 h below 7.2°C to break their bud dormancy (Soliman et al 2018). The cultivated area of "Anna" apple cultivar is being increased rapidly especially during the last three decades to reach 66869.05 feddan in 2018 which produced 704727 ton according to FAO (2018).…”