Water consumption in lysimeter-grown apple and pear trees with different training systems
2011
Girona, J. | Campo, J del | Lopez, G. | Mata, M. | Marsal, J.
A five years experiment was conducted to determine apple (‘Golden Smoothee’) and pear (‘Conference’) water consumption. Daily reference evapotranspiration (ET(o)) and crop evapotranspiration (ET(c)) from three apple and three pear trees grown in large weighing lysimeters were monitored. Midday canopy light interception was determined on a weekly basis from bud-break until leaf fall in each of the five experimental years. Relationships between canopy light interception and the calculated K(c) (ET(c)/ET(o)) were established from bud-break until harvest. There were significant differences in K(c) values between apple and pear trees. When daily K(c) from bud-break until harvest was adjusted to a quadratic curve, the adjusted curves in pear tress were very similar among years. However, in apple trees, the value at which K(c) saturation was observed increased with years. Regarding light interception, both apple and pear trees exhibited a similar progressive increase in midday light interception during the five-year experiment. Although there was a clear positive correlation between midday canopy light interception and K(c) in apple and pear trees, the behavior of the established relationships was different among crops. While apple data fitted the same equation independently of years, the pear data fitted different equations for each year of evaluation. This discrepancy between apple and pear trees may be related with their different tree growth habits and training system. We concluded that midday canopy light interception could be a useful tool for scheduling irrigation if this information is complemented with data relating to tree growth and shape.
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