Abstract
Abstract. As the cranberry industry implements irrigation automation, thresholding based on real-time monitoring of soil moisture to initiate irrigation is lacking. This study was conducted to determine the optimum soil water potential for starting sprinkler irrigation (SWP I ) that would optimize water productivity (WP) without decreasing yield. During the 2011 and 2012 growing seasons, three sites in QuA©bec and one site in Wisconsin were equipped with tensiometers, flowmeters, and weather stations for testing wet (-5.5 kPa), dry (-7.0 to -10.0 kPa), and control (-6.0 to -6.5 kPa) treatments. The experimental designs were developed to evaluate the impact of irrigation treatments on yield and WP. Dry treatments required 21% to 93% less irrigation water than the control treatments; wet treatments needed 54% to 186% more irrigation water than the control treatments. Irrigation treatments had no significant effect on yield when SWP I values ranged from -5.5 to -8.0 kPa; however, a significant yield reduction of 11% was observed for a SWP I value of -10.0 kPa. The WP values in dry treatments were always higher than those in control and wet treatments. Dry treatments, with SWP I ranging from -7.0 to -8.0 kPa, significantly improved the water productivity without decreasing yield.
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