WATER CONSUMPTION IN GRAPEVINES: INFLUENCE OF LEAF AREA AND IRRIGATION

Four grapevine cultivars were grown in weighing lysimeters under two irrigation treatments (no water stress and water stress). Mean vine water consumption (L.day^-1), leaf area (m²) and evaporative demand (mm.day^-1) were measured.
Periodical transpiration (L.day^-1.m^-2) and K_x (water consumption per evapotranspiration), measured in L.mm^-1, were calculated.
Transpiration varied during the growing cycle; being higher at the beginning of the season.
Transpiration was directly related to ETo and leaf area.
Water availability and genotype significantly influenced plant transpiration.
Genotype modified transpiration via leaf area development.
Genetic differences appeared more clearly under water stressed conditions.
Airén, cultivated in semiarid conditions, was the cultivar with the lowest transpiration rates; while the Chardonnay, a northern cultivar, had the highest values.
For all cultivars and water treatments, K_x was linearly related to total leaf area.
This linear relationship was modified significantly by water availability and under water stressed conditions by the genotype.
Crop coefficients that are applied to the vine have to be related to the exposed leaf area in the vineyard.

I ISHS Workshop on Water Relations of Grapevines

M. Gómez del Campo, C. Ruiz, V. Sotés, J.R. Lissarrague

Vitis vinifera L., cultivars, transpiration, lysimeter, crop coefficient

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1999.493.27