Response of Peach, Plum and Almond to Water Restrictions Applied during Slowdown Periods of Fruit Growth

Abstract

<p class="MsoNormal"> Water restrictions management for fruit rosaceous during slowdown periods of fruit growth can increase water use efficiency and improve fruit quality without reducing significantly their yield. In this context, two water restriction levels were tested during four consecutive seasons (2007-2011) in peach, plum and almond trees during slowdown periods of fruit growth corresponding to stage II for peach and plum and to stages II and III for almond. Water was applied by drip irrigation to produce different water-application treatments of 50% ETc (T₅₀) and 75% ETc (T₇₅) of non-stressed trees irrigated at 100% ETc (T₁₀₀). The response of trees is presented only for the last season of the experiment (2010-2011) where the effect of the applied water stress is more pronounced. Results show that the effect of water restrictions varied depending on the species. Yield and fruit size were reduced significantly for peach only under treatment T₅₀. Fruit quality was improved for this species with an increase of brix refractometric index and a decrease of acidity. These parameters were evolved in the same manner for plum but the observed differences were not significant. For almond, kernel quality remained unaffected by water restriction at T₇₅. However, the epidermal wrinkles of kernels were more embossed, in response to treatment T₅₀, which affected their appearance. Except leaf area, the evolution of shoots growth, chlorophyll content and leaf temperature showed that the physiology of all species was affected by water stress created by the application of the two irrigation treatments but without profound influence, particularly in plum. In conclusion, irrigation-water may be economized during slowdown periods of fruit growth without major negative effect up to 25% ETc for peach and almond and up to 50% ETc for plum.<o:p></o:p> </p

Yield and Fruit Quality of Almond, Peach and Plum Under Regulated Deficit Irrigation

“…Tuono the duration of the fruit-growth slowdown period was 4 months and 15 d from April 9 to fruit maturity in early September (0. [32] . The experiment was laid out in completely randomized blocks each with three replicates of five trees.…”

Effet de l'irrigation déficitaire contrôlée sur la croissance et le développement foliaire du palmier dattier (Phoenix dactyliferaL.)

“…Toutefois, cette évolution, remarquable en deuxième année, est moins importante en première année. Un tel constat est évoqué par plusieurs études sur des espèces arboricoles telles que l'amandier, le pêcher (Razouk et al, 2013a), ou l'olivier (Dbara et al, 2011 ;Razouk et al, 2013b). Ce phénomène, couramment rencontré chez les arbres fruitiers, est dû essentiellement à la mobilisation des réserves au niveau du tronc et à l'importance de la zone racinaire (Fereres et Soriano, 2007 ;Katerji et Hallaire, 1984).…”

“…Ce dernier concept a été proposé par Chalmers et al (1981) pour contrôler la croissance végétative des vergers de pêcher où ils ont constaté qu'une économie d'eau d'irrigation pouvait être réalisée sans réduire le rendement. Des résultats similaires ont été rapportés pour d'autres espèces fruitières dont les études réalisées chez le poirier (Zhao et al, 2015), l'amandier (Razouk et al, 2013a), le mandarinier (Pedrero et al, 2014), le clémentinier (Ballester et al, 2014) et l'abricotier (Pérez-Pastor et al, 2014.…”

Advancing knowledge about restricted irrigation strategies on commercial peach plantation under Mediterranean condition

“…In any regulated deficit irrigation management strategy, the selection of the growth stage (s) where water restriction will be applied is of crucial importance.Most specialists agree that that pit hardening (PH) stage (Stage II) is an adequate period for the application of deficit irrigation (DI)on peaches trees [10]. In addition to water saving, DI at stage II might improve fruit quality too [11,12,13]. The improvement in fruit quality was mainly expressed as increase of fruit soluble solids (FSS) content.…”