Jujube Orchards Research Articles

Estimating spatial mean soil water contents of sloping jujube orchards using temporal stability

Abstract Estimating spatial mean soil water contents from point-scale measurements is important to improve soil water management in sloping land of semiarid areas. Temporal stability analysis, as a statistical technique to estimate soil water content, is an effective tool in terms of facilitating the upscaling estimation of mean values. The objective of this study was to examine temporal stability of soil water profiles (0–20, 20–40, 40–60 and 0–60 cm) in sloping jujube (Zizyphus jujuba) orchards and to estimate field mean root-zone soil water based on temporal stability analysis in the Yuanzegou catchment of the Chinese Loess Plateau, using soil water observations under both dry and wet soil conditions. The results showed that different time-stable locations were identified for different depths and the temporal stability of soil water content in 20–40 cm was significantly (P

Transpiration of a Linze jujube orchard in an arid region of China

AbstractAs an important source of income in the region's economy, the jujube plantations are very common in arid north‐western China, and their planted areas continue to expand. In the central Heihe River Basin of arid north‐western China, Linze jujube (Zizyphus jujuba Mill. var. inermis (Bunge) Rehd.) plantations cover more than 10,000 ha, too. Water use by this species is expected to change or modify catchment hydrological process. To our knowledge, there is no information on the transpiration and canopy conductance of the jujube plantations in arid north‐western China. Therefore, Transpiration and canopy conductance were monitored in a 14‐year‐old Linze jujube orchard. The experiment was carried out in the central Heihe River Basin, near Pingchuan Town (Linze County, Gansu Province, China) during growing season of 2006, from May to the first ten days of October. Eight trees were used to measure sap flow using the heat‐pulse‐velocity method. The orchard was irrigated adequately during the study. Transpiration was estimated from the sap flow measurements. During the experiment, the transpiration rate of the orchard ranged from 0·32 to 1·40 mm per day. Canopy conductance was obtained from estimated daily transpiration and climatic variables measured on a half‐hour basis, and canopy conductance for water vapour transfer was between 1·20 to 82·57 mm s−1, with a mean of 11·86 ± 6·84 mm s−1 during the observation period. Air temperature and vapour‐pressure deficit exhibited a linear relationship with sap flow velocity and the relationship between these factors and canopy conductance could be represented by an exponential decay function. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

First Report of Witches'-Broom Disease of Broussonetia papyrifera and Its Association with a Phytoplasma of Elm Yellows Group (16SrV)

Broussonetia papyrifera, commonly known as paper mulberry, is an ornamental tree that is native to northeastern Asia. Because of its fast-growing nature and tolerance of dust, smoke, and high temperatures, paper mulberry is an important component of the biological diversity in natural ecosystems as well as a favorable shade tree in the region. In September of 2003, a disease characterized by pronounced witches'-broom symptoms was observed in paper mulberry trees growing near a jujube (Ziziphus jujuba) orchard and in home gardens located in Taian, Shandong, China. The diseased trees developed dense clusters of highly proliferating branches with shortened internodes. Leaves on the affected branches were chlorotic and greatly reduced in size. Phytoplasma infection was first suspected in this paper mulberry witches'-broom (PMWB) disease because the disease occurred in an area where other phytoplasmal diseases, including jujube witches'-broom (JWB) disease and paulownia witches'-broom (PaWB) disease, are common (4). Results from nested polymerase chain reactions (PCR), performed using phytoplasma-universal 16S rDNA primers (P1/P7 and R16F2n/R16R2) (1,2,3), revealed that all seven diseased trees tested contained phytoplasma, whereas PCR assay of comparable leaf samples from three nearby symptomless paper mulberry trees were negative. Subsequent restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis of the PCR-amplified 16S rDNA indicated that all diseased trees contained the same phytoplasma and that the PMWB phytoplasma belongs to the subgroup B of the elm yellows (EY) phytoplasma group (16SrV-B). Nucleotide sequence analysis of the cloned PMWB phytoplasma partial rRNA operon (GenBank Accession No. AY576685), spanning a near full-length 16S rRNA gene, a 16S-23S rRNA intergenic spacer, a tRNA-Ile gene, and a partial 23S rRNA gene, suggested that PMWB phytoplasma is most closely related to JWB phytoplasma, a member of the subgroup16SrV-B. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a paper mulberry witches'-broom disease and the first report of its association with a phytoplasma. Further work is underway to determine whether the PMWB phytoplasma is distinct from previously characterized phytoplasmas included in group 16SrV and to assess impacts of the phytoplasma on the ecosystems in the region.

Microcatchment Water Harvesting for Raising Jujube Orchards in an Arid Climate

ABSTRACT MICROCATCHMENTS having different combina-tions of slopes (0, 0.5, 5 and 10%), slope lengths (3.0, 5.12, 7.0, 8.5, 10.75 and 14.5 m) and contributing areas (0, 31.5, 54, 72, 99 and 144 mVtree) aimed at generating runoff supplements of 0 to 400 mm were studied for a period of seven years to determine their runoff yield, soil moisture storage, growth, yield, fruit characteristics, and long term runoff behavior under hot arid conditions in India. In general, runoff and soil moisture storage increased significantly with increasing slope, and decreasing slope length and contributing area; the highest being at 10% slope, 5.12 m slope length and 31.5 mVtree contributing area. Similar trends were observed for growth parameters, yield and fruit characteristics of jujube. It was also found that jujube yield was a function of the available soil moisture storage. Over a period of seven years the threshold rainfall reduced by half and runoff efficiency doubled due to the formation of a nearly impervious soil crust over the microcatchment surface.