Abstract

Although being one of the few drought-tolerant plants, mango trees are irrigated to ensure optimum and consistent productivity in China. In order to better understand the effects of soil water content on mango yield and fruit quality at fruit growth stage, irrigation experiments were investigated and the object was to determine the soil water content criteria at which growth and quality of mango would be optimal based on soil water measured by RHD-JS water-saving irrigation system through micro-sprinkling irrigation. Five soil water content treatments (relative to the percentage of field water capacity) for irrigation (T1:79%-82%, T2:75%-78%, T3:71%-74%, T4: 65%-70%, T5:63%-66%) were compared in 2013. Amount of applied irrigation water for different treatments varied from 2.93m3 to 1.08 m3. The results showed that mango fruit production and quality at fruit growth stage were significantly affected under different irrigation water amounts. Variation in soil water content not only had effects on fruit size, but also on fruit yield. The highest fruit yield and irrigation water use efficiency were obtained from the T4 treatment. Irrigation water amount also affected fruit quality parameters like fruit total soluble solids, soluble sugar, starch, titratable acid and vitamin C content. Comprehensive evaluation of the effect of indexs of correlation on irrigation treatment by subordinate function showed that when the soil moisture content were controlled at about 65–70% of the field water moisture capacity, water demand in the growth and development of mango could be ensured, and maximum production efficiency of irrigation and the best quality of fruit could be achieved. In conclusion, treatment T4 was the optimum irrigation schedule for growing mango, thus achieving efficient production of mango in consideration of the compromise among mango yield, fruit quality and water use efficiency.

Highlights

  • Worldwide population growth and land use expansion in crops have increased pressure on the availability of water dramatically in the future

  • The mean daily temperatures were all above 17.2°C, and changed from 23.1 to 29.7°C, and the average temperature gradually increased from February to May during mango fruit growth

  • For a more detailed analysis of the water applied in the six irrigation treatments, three periods were considered: from flower fading to fruit setting stage, during fruit rapid expanding stage and from the end of the fruit rapid expanding stage until the end of irrigation of season

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Summary

Introduction

Worldwide population growth and land use expansion in crops have increased pressure on the availability of water dramatically in the future. The increasing water shortage has caused us to investigate the sustainable use of irrigation water. The specific effective water-saving irrigation techniques without detrimentally affecting crop production need to be developed urgently and will be one of the main goals in agricultural production. Micro-sprinkling irrigation has the advantages of both dripping and sprinkling irrigation, when combined with appropriate irrigation schedule, it can effectively reduce water consumption, increase yields and agronomic water use efficiency under conditions of water scarcity [1,2,3]

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