Usefulness of trunk diameter variations as continuous water stress indicators of pomegranate (Punica granatum) trees

D.S. Intrigliolo, H. Puerto, L. Bonet, J.J. Alarcón, E. Nicolas and J. Bartual

Agricultural Water Management, 2011, vol. 98, issue 9, 1462-1468

Abstract: Pomegranate trees (Punica granatum L.) is a deciduous fruit tree included in the so-called group of minor fruit tree species, not widely grown but of some importance in the south east of Spain. Pomegranate trees are considered as a culture tolerant to soil water deficit. However, very little is known about pomegranate orchard water management. The objective of this research was to asses the feasibility of using trunk diameter variation (TDV) indexes, obtained by means of LVDT sensors, as a plant water stress indicators for pomegranate trees. The experiment was carried out with mature trees grown in the field under three irrigation regimes: control well watered trees; trees continuously deficit irrigated at 50% of the control regime (SDI); and trees that had a summer water stress cycle being irrigated at 25% of the control rates only in July and August (RDI). The seasonal variations of maximum diurnal trunk shrinkage (MDS) and trunk growth rates (TGR) were compared with midday stem water potential ([Psi]stem) measurements. During the course of the entire season, control trees maintained lower MDS values than the SDI ones. In the RDI treatment, as water restrictions began, there was a slow increase in MDS, in correspondence with a decrease in [Psi]stem. When water was returned at full dosage, the RDI quickly recovered to MDS and [Psi]stem values similar to the control. However, lower MDS for a given [Psi]stem values were observed as the season advanced. The magnitude of differences between well watered and deficit irrigated trees was much larger in the case of MDS than for [Psi]stem. However, the tree-to-tree variability of the MDS readings was more than four times higher than for [Psi]stem; average coefficient of variation of 7.5 and 36% for [Psi]stem and MDS, respectively. On the other hand, TGR did not clearly reflect differences in tree water status. Overall, results reported indicated that MDS is a good indicator of pomegranate tree water status and it can be further used for managing irrigation. However, the seasonal changes in the MDS-[Psi]stem relationship should be taken into account when attempting to use threshold MDS values for scheduling irrigation.

Keywords: Deficit; irrigation; LVDT; Maximum; diurnal; trunk; shrinkage; Stem; water; potential; Trunk; growth (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377411001053
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:98:y:2011:i:9:p:1462-1468

Access Statistics for this article

Agricultural Water Management is currently edited by B.E. Clothier, W. Dierickx, J. Oster and D. Wichelns

More articles in Agricultural Water Management from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().