Abstract
This study was conducted to investigate the effects of different restricted irrigation strategies on peach trees. Sustainable and regulated deficit irrigation treatments were applied during the 2018/2019 production season in a commercial plot of “Bénédicte” variety located at the Atlas Mountain’s region of Morocco. Five different treatments were tested: T1, T2 and T3 with an application of respectively 125% (over-irrigation), 100% (control) and 75% (deficit-irrigation) of Crop Water Requirement (CWR) throughout the whole crop cycle; These treatments were classified under Sustainable Deficit Irrigation treatments (SDI). Regulated Deficit Irrigation treatments (RDI) comprising of treatments T4, and T5 which correspond respectively to applications of 75% ETc and 50% ETc during the pit hardening stage (PH), and 100% ETc during the rest of the cycle. The results showed that deficient irrigation treatments had no effect on vegetative growth parameters.A downward trend in average fruit weight and size at harvest was observed in the T3 treatment. A significant increase in sugar content was observed in T3 and T5 compared to the control T2. With regard to biochemical parameters, the deficient treatment (T5) recorded the highest proline content in response to water stress, followed by T3 and T4. Therewas no significant difference between the crop yields under SDI and RDI treatments, but T4 produced arelatively higher yield of 47 T/Haamong the treatments.Thisled to the water use efficiency (WUE) performance ranking: T3 with 10.63 kg/m3, T4 (75% PH) was in second place with a WUE of 9.6 kg/m3, finally T5 with an efficiency of 9.35 kg/m3.
Highlights
In many parts of the Mediterranean region, water is a major constraint for crop production, given the dramatic increase in demand for this element on one hand and the consequences of climate change on the other hand
This paper discusses the effect of sustainable deficit irrigation (SDI) and regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) on peach trees; The specificobjective of this study is to refine the crop coefficient Kc model of peaches published in FAO-Bulletin 56 to the real conditions of Atlas Mountainsarea in Morocco in order to achieveoptimal production in terms of both quantity and quality standards
The tested five treatments are:T1 the over-estimate of water crop requirement (125% ETc), T2 representing the control (100% Crop evapotranspiration ETc), T3 the sustainable deficit irrigation (SDI) treatment (75% ETc) that was applied over the whole fruit development stage from early March to late July, and the two regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) treatments T4 and T5 where respectively 75% and 50% ETc have been applied during the phase II of fruit development and 100% ETc was applied during the rest of the cycle
Summary
In many parts of the Mediterranean region, water is a major constraint for crop production, given the dramatic increase in demand for this element on one hand and the consequences of climate change on the other hand. Due to various agricultural development plans, irrigated fruit trees in Morocco have been developed considerably in recent years and becameone of the largest consumers of irrigation water;this raises questions about the sustainability of fruit tree crops in such water stressed country Under this context, the improvement of the water use efficiency is crucial.Thismight be achievedthrough the application of adequate irrigation strategies, such asdeficit irrigation [4]. The tested five treatments are:T1 the over-estimate of water crop requirement (125% ETc), T2 representing the control (100% Crop evapotranspiration ETc), T3 the sustainable deficit irrigation (SDI) treatment (75% ETc) that was applied over the whole fruit development stage from early March to late July, and the two regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) treatments T4 and T5 where respectively 75% and 50% ETc have been applied during the phase II of fruit development (pit hardening PH) and 100% ETc was applied during the rest of the cycle
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