Articles
Effects of irrigation water withholding on soil-plant water relations of Diospyros kaki ‘Rojo Brillante’ grafted onto D. lotus and D. virginiana
Article number
1468_24
Pages
183 – 190
Language
English
Abstract
This study investigates the effects of irrigation water withholding on soil–plant water status indicators of ‘Rojo Brillante’ persimmon (Diospyros kaki) trees grafted onto two rootstocks: D. lotus and D. virginiana, aiming to evaluate their different drought tolerance mechanisms.
The experiment was conducted during the summer of 2025 in a persimmon orchard at the CEBAS-CSIC experimental station in Murcia (SE Spain). Trees were planted in 2015, spaced 3×5 m, and irrigated using a single drip line per row with five emitters per tree (3.5 L h‑1 each). All trees were irrigated at full crop water requirements, except for a water withholding period which duration was different in each rootstock.
Soil volumetric water content (
v) was continuously monitored using TDR sensors, whereas real-time trunk water potential (Ψtrunk) and sap flow (SF) was measured with novel trunk microtensiometers (MTs) and stem heat-balance sensors (SHB), respectively.
Moreover, stem water potential (Ψstem) and leaf gas exchange were measured periodically.
The two rootstocks exhibited contrasting drought-response strategies. D. lotus showed a near-anisohydric pattern, with rapid decline in Ψstem and Ψtrunk, paired with moderate reduction in leaf gas exchange, and consistently low SF rates.
Conversely, D. virginiana showed an isohydric tendency, maintaining higher water potentials through earlier stomatal regulation in response to drought and displaying higher SF rates under well-irrigation conditions.
Continuous monitoring of Ψtrunk and SF effectively denoted these divergent physiological patterns that were also conditioned by the different canopy tree size. D. virginiana exhibited stronger hydraulic control and higher drought resilience, whereas D. lotus proved to be more vulnerable to soil water deficit.
These findings provide useful information for rootstock selection under increasingly irrigation water limitations.
The experiment was conducted during the summer of 2025 in a persimmon orchard at the CEBAS-CSIC experimental station in Murcia (SE Spain). Trees were planted in 2015, spaced 3×5 m, and irrigated using a single drip line per row with five emitters per tree (3.5 L h‑1 each). All trees were irrigated at full crop water requirements, except for a water withholding period which duration was different in each rootstock.
Soil volumetric water content (
v) was continuously monitored using TDR sensors, whereas real-time trunk water potential (Ψtrunk) and sap flow (SF) was measured with novel trunk microtensiometers (MTs) and stem heat-balance sensors (SHB), respectively.Moreover, stem water potential (Ψstem) and leaf gas exchange were measured periodically.
The two rootstocks exhibited contrasting drought-response strategies. D. lotus showed a near-anisohydric pattern, with rapid decline in Ψstem and Ψtrunk, paired with moderate reduction in leaf gas exchange, and consistently low SF rates.
Conversely, D. virginiana showed an isohydric tendency, maintaining higher water potentials through earlier stomatal regulation in response to drought and displaying higher SF rates under well-irrigation conditions.
Continuous monitoring of Ψtrunk and SF effectively denoted these divergent physiological patterns that were also conditioned by the different canopy tree size. D. virginiana exhibited stronger hydraulic control and higher drought resilience, whereas D. lotus proved to be more vulnerable to soil water deficit.
These findings provide useful information for rootstock selection under increasingly irrigation water limitations.
Authors
M.R. Conesa, W. Conejero, M. Parra-Gómez, A. Navarro, D.S. Intrigliolo, M.C. Ruiz-Sánchez
Keywords
drought, microtensiometer (MTs), sap flow sensors (SF), soil TDR sensors, persimmon, water relations
Groups involved
Online Articles (70)