Effect of Regulated Deficit Irrigation on Agronomic Parameters of Three Plum Cultivars (Prunus salicina L.) under Semi-Arid Climate Conditions (original) (raw)
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Agronomy, 2021
Evolved in South Africa and released to market in 2009, the ‘African Rose’ plum has been introduced and grown under the Egyptian semi-arid conditions since 2010. Within that time, this cultivar has faced significant fruit quality issues, mainly poor color and low total soluble solids (TSS). Several trials using foliarly applied growth regulators have been conducted, but with little conspicuous results on fruit yield and quality. There is very limited information about the relationship between irrigation regime and fruit quality for this cultivar. Therefore, a field experiment was conducted to study the effect of deficit irrigation on the quality of the ‘African Rose’ plum during the 2019 and 2020 seasons. Five-year-old hedge growing trees were subjected to three deficit irrigation regimes: 100% (control), 80%, and 60% of the crop evapotranspiration (ETc) after the pit hardening stage until the end of the harvest season (May to June period) were evaluated. Results indicated that defi...
Productivity and water saving of ‘Fortune’ plum under different water regimes
E3S web of conferences, 2024
This study was conducted over four consecutive years (2015-2018) in the Sefrou region of Morocco, between Sais and the Middle Atlas Mountains. The goal of the study was to assess how plum trees respond to three different irrigation strategies: a normal supply of water (T2) to meet 100% of crop water needs; an irrigation deficit (T1) that provides only 75% of the water needs; and an additional water supply of 25% (T3) above the crop needs. The study found that deficient irrigation (T1) had no significant effect on plum yield or average fruit weight at harvest, but an excess water supply of 25% (T3) over the requirements (T2) resulted in higher yields and average fruit weight than the control. T3 also showed an increase in fruit size at harvest compared to the control, but not in T1 compared to T2. However, the excess water input for T3 did not justify the excess yield in terms of water use efficiency (WUE). On the other hand, T1 maintained the same level of production as the control while saving water, which resulted in a higher WUE compared to T2 and T3..
Agricultural Water Management, 2015
In early maturing fruit crops, post-harvest is usually the preferred period to apply regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) because it offers the opportunity of reducing vegetative growth and saving water without interfering with fruit growth. There are few studies of RDI on Japanese plum, in comparison with the number available for other fruit crops. We examined the effect of RDI over the post-harvest seasons of 2009-2013 on tree water status, vegetative growth, yield, fruit quality and economic return in an adult orchard of early maturing 'Red Beaut' Japanese plum. All treatments received the same pre-harvest irrigation of 100% of crop evapotranspiration (ET c) and post-harvest irrigation treatments were: irrigated at 100% of ET c (Control); applying 60% of water in Control (RDI-60); and applying 30% of water in Control (RDI-30). The average annual irrigation water applied to Control was 639 mm. Maximum annual water savings with respect to Control were 39% for RDI-60 and 70% for RDI-30. Intercepted photosynthetically active radiation at solar noon displayed a similar pattern throughout the years with no significant differences between irrigation treatments in any year. However, the RDI treatments were suitable for reducing total pruning weight. Fruit yield in RDI-30 was similar to Control for each of the five years following deficit irrigation. In the long-term (five seasons), the effect of post-harvest RDI had no negative cumulative effect on tree productivity. Therefore, for early maturing Japanese plum it can be concluded that allowing a progressive post-harvest water stress that limits the decline in « stem to values of −1.65 MPa in early August, with a maximum decrease of 0.014 MPa day −1 , corresponding in this study to RDI-30, appears not only to be an effective way of saving water, but also acts as a useful tool to control vegetative growth (considered as total pruning), maintain fruit yield and quality and increase grower's final return.
Agricultural Water Management, 2015
This paper examined the effect of two regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) strategies during 2009-2013. Water reduction was applied in stage II of fruit growth and post-harvest for its potential to control vigor, save water, maintain yield and grower's return in 'Angeleno' late-maturing Japanese plum in southwestern Spain. Irrigation treatments were: Control, to cover 100% of crop water requirements during the whole season; RDI-20-60, applying 20% and 60% of Control during stage II and post-harvest, respectively; and RDI-0-30, applying no irrigation during stage II and 30% of Control during post-harvest. For the rest of the season, deficit irrigation trees received 100% of crop water requirements. Midday stem water potential (« stem), vegetative and fruit growth, yield and grower's return were measured and calculated for the different treatments. Average water savings over the five years of the experiment were 26% for RDI-20-60 and 34% for RDI-0-30. RDI reduced « stem , trunk cross sectional area (TCSA) and pruning weight according to the water applied in any year but fruit fresh weight was also reduced when deficit irrigation applied during stage II lasted more than two months. Conversely, yield in RDI-20-60 was significantly higher than in Control. Gross margin was, on average, 46% higher than Control for RDI-20-60 with significant difference. This was due to higher yield and lower annual pruning costs, applied water and electricity consumption. This study suggests that allowing some degree of water stress during stage II and postharvest, with « stem above −1.75 MPa and −1.35 MPa, respectively, as in the RDI-20-60 treatment, appears to offer an effective management strategy for saving water and controlling vegetative growth without negatively affecting either crop yield or the farmer's economic return.
Japanese plums behavior under water stress: impact on yield and biochemical traits
Heliyon
This work investigates response to drought of nine local cultivars alongside two exotic varieties of Japanese plum (Prunus salicina L.) through their yield and fruit quality components. It was carried out at Sais plain, northern Morocco, over two consecutive years (2019-2020). Water stress was imposed by a deficit irrigation (DI) treatment of 50% ETc during the whole fruit growth period, compared to full irrigation of 100% ETc (CI). At their full ripening stage, the cultivars were assessed for their yield, fruit weight and fruit quality attributes, namely total soluble solids (TSS), pH, titratable acidity (TA), maturity index (MI), soluble sugars content (SSC), amino acids content (AAC), total phenolic compounds (TPC) and total antioxidant capacity (TAC). Results displayed significant decrease in yield and fruit weight since the first year of DI application. Owing to calculated stability indexes of the aforementioned traits along with water use efficiency, the local cultivar 'Fortu-43' was the most insensitive to drought, whereas 'Timhdit' and 'Black-D35' showed the lowest drought tolerability. The effects of water stress on fruit chemical and biochemical traits varied significantly among cultivars, exhibiting an overall significant improvement in fruit quality. Two-dimensional clustered heatmap analysis subdivided the cultivars into two distinct clusters, mainly discriminated based on stability indexes of SSC, MI, TPC and TAC. Among the latter, SSC stability index was probably the most significant drought tolerance marker for Japanese plum.
Frontiers in Plant Science, 2017
In orchards, the variations of fruit quality and its determinants are crucial for resource effective measures. In the present study, a drip-irrigated plum production (Prunus domestica L. “Tophit plus”/Wavit) located in a semi-humid climate was studied. Analysis of the apparent electrical conductivity (ECa) of soil showed spatial patterns of sand lenses in the orchard. Water status of sample trees was measured instantaneously by means of leaf water potential, Ψleaf [MPa], and for all trees by thermal imaging of canopies and calculation of the crop water stress index (CWSI). Methods for determining CWSI were evaluated. A CWSI approach calculating canopy and reference temperatures from the histogram of pixels from each image itself was found to suit the experimental conditions. Soil ECa showed no correlation with specific leaf area ratio and cumulative water use efficiency (WUEc) derived from the crop load. The fruit quality, however, was influenced by physiological drought stress in trees with high crop load and, resulting (too) high WUEc, when fruit driven water demand was not met. As indicated by analysis of variance, neither ECa nor the instantaneous CWSI could be used as predictors of fruit quality, while the interaction of CWSI and WUEc did succeed in indicating significant differences. Consequently, both WUEc and CWSI should be integrated in irrigation scheduling for positive impact on fruit quality.
Yield and fruit quality of almond, peach and plum under regulated deficit irrigation
Frontiers of Agricultural Science and Engineering, 2020
The effects of regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) on the performance of almond cv. Tuono, peach cv. JH-Hall and plum cv. Stanley were assessed on the Saiss Plain (NW, Morocco) over three consecutive growing seasons (2011-2013). Irrigation treatments consisted of a control, irrigation applied to fully satisfy crop water requirements (100% ETC), and two RDI treatments, irrigation applied to 75% ETC (RDI-75) and 50% ETC (RDI-50). These three treatments were applied during fruit-growth slowdown periods corresponding to Stages II and III in almond and Stage II in peach and plum. Yield and fruit quality traits were determined. The effect of RDI differed between species. Yield and fruit size were reduced significantly only in peach under RDI-50. Fruit quality improved in this species in the first year of the experiment, with an increase of sugar/acid ratio and polyphenol content. Plum quality also improved but the effects were significant only in the second and third years. Similar results were recorded in almond kernel, but their epidermal grooves were deeper under RDI-50, and this may have affected their commercial value. It is concluded that water can be saved during the fruit-growth slowdown period by up to 25% in peach and 50% in almond and plum with improvements in fruit quality without affecting total yield.
Drought tolerance of wild versus cultivated tree species of almond and plum in the field
Tree Physiology, 2019
Trees of the genus Prunus produce some of the most widely consumed fruits globally. The combination of climate change-related warming and increased drought stress, scarcity of freshwater resources for irrigation, and increasing demands due to population growth creates a need for increased drought tolerance in these tree species. Recently, we have shown in the field that a native wild pear species performs better under drought than two cultivated pear species. Here, a comparative field study was conducted in Israel to investigate traits associated with drought tolerance in almond (cultivated Prunus dulcis (Mill.) D. A. Webb vs wild Prunus ramonensis Danin) and plum (cultivated Prunus domestica L. vs wild Prunus ursina Kotschy). Measurements of xylem embolism and shoot and root carbon reserves were done along a year, including seasonal drought in the wild and a 35-day drought experiment in the orchards. Synchronous measurements of native xylem embolism and shoot water potential showed...