FRUIT WATER POTENTIAL: A COMPARISON STUDY TO OTHER WATER POTENTIAL PARAMETERS

The aim of this study was to evaluate the possible use of fruit water potential (FWP) as indicator of crop water status, and also observe how Regulated Deficit Irrigation (RDI) affects fruit water status.
The work was conduced over three years (1998-1999-2000) in a commercial peach plot (41’38ºN, 0’35ºE, Catalonia, Spain) where three irrigation regimes were considered: Control, which was irrigated to non-stress conditions following a water budget approach; RDI-SII and RDI-SII-PH, which were irrigated as Control except during Stage II of fruit development (pit hardening) for both treatments and post harvest for the last one.
On RDI phases, only 35% of the Control dose was applied.
FWP was compared to well-known water potential parameters, sunlit leaf water potential at midday (LWP), midday stem water potential (SWP) and predawn water potential (PDWP). Measurements were made on particular sunny days during Stage II and III of fruit development.
The variability for FWP was lower than SWP, coefficient of variation (C.V.) of 9.35 and C.V.=19.48, respectively; with a better cohesion of data, R² of 0.89 for FWP and R²=0.86 for SWP. With all the Pearson correlation coefficient above 0.72, FWP was significantly correlated with the other measures (LWP, SWP), and had the highest (0.96) correlation with PDWP. FWP evolution indicated clearly the difference between treatment during Stage II when tree water status was different and a return to a non-stressed condition during Stage III.

International Symposium on Irrigation and Water Relations in Grapevine and Fruit Trees

M. Gelly, J. Marsal, M. Mata, A. Arbonès, J. Rufat, J. Girona

Prunus persica L. Batsch, Regulated Deficit Irrigation, fruit water potential, water potential

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2004.646.3