The Effect of Soil Volume on Young Peach Tree Growth and Water Use

Abstract

<jats:p>An experiment designed to study the effects of different root volumes was installed in Fall 1991. `Golden Queen' peach trees [<jats:italic>Prunus persica</jats:italic> (L.) Batsch.] were planted into different isolated soil volumes (0.025, 0.06, 0.15, 0.4, and 1.0 m<jats:sup>3</jats:sup>), which were essentially individual drainage lysimeters. Trunk cross-sectional area (TCA) increased from 5.76 to 14.23 cm<jats:sup>2</jats:sup> for the smallest and largest volumes, respectively, while leaf area was 4.56 and 21.32 m<jats:sup>2</jats:sup> for the respective treatments. Leaf size was not affected by soil volume. Soil volume was positively related to the number of lateral shoots produced, lateral shoot density, and internode length. Total flower bud number and flower bud density were inversely related to soil volume. Fruit set was similar among treatments despite an almost 4-fold difference in tree size. Tree water use (liters·mm<jats:sup>-1</jats:sup> pan evaporation) increased with soil volume; however, when adjusted for tree size (tree water use per TCA), there were no consistent differences between treatments for tree water use over the season. These results suggest that trees planted in the smaller soil volumes were more efficient reproductively per unit of tree size and would be easier to manage in an ultra-high-density planting.</jats:p>

Long-term Effects of Restricted Root Volume and Regulated Deficit Irrigation on Peach: I. Growth and Mineral Nutrition

“…This first paper (I) addresses the effect on growth and mineral nutrition and a second paper (II) assesses the impact on productivity and wateruse efficiency. The effect of RRV on growth and water use of 1year-old peach trees was reported in a previous paper (Boland et al, 1994).…”

“…Individual trees were planted into each compartment, there being 40 trees in each row. The installation of the experiment has been described previously (Boland et al, 1994). In brief, each row consisted of consecutive compartments of different volumes of soil lined with plastic.…”

“…In Year 1, all treatments were irrigated fully (Boland et al, 1994). In Years 2, 3, and 4, full irrigation was applied to five of the 10 treatments estimated from U.S. Class A pan evaporation (E pan ) and known crop factors for 'Golden Queen' peaches ( Table 2) (Boland et al, 1993).…”

Effects of available soil volume on growth, bud fertility and water relations of young Shiraz grapevines

“…Our results show a positive relationship between ASV and the number of bunches per vine. By contrast, Boland et al (1994) showed that total flower bud number and flower bud density were inversely related to soil volume for young peach trees. They speculated that this relationship was due to hormonal control or reduced vegetative vigour exhibited by decreased internode length and possibly leading to a greater number of flowers per bud, as found by Williamson et al (1992).…”

“…Furthermore, it is unclear to what extent ASV influences bud fertility in young grapevines and hence potential yield. Increased flower density in response to a reduction in ASV has been observed in both peaches and cherries (Williamson et al 1992, Boland et al 1994, White et al 2001.…”