Category: Water management
An irrigation schedule testing model for optimization of the Smartirrigation avocado app
A series of mobile irrigation apps have been developed on the basis that irrigation schedules can be estimated using an average of the previous five days of crop evapotranspiration (ETc). The application of this average ETc methodology for developing an irrigation schedule has not been fully evaluated for the suite of apps, including the avocado app. Thus, an irrigation testing model was developed and is presented here that simulates irrigation depths based on the Smartirrigation avocado app operation
Water-use, wetted soil volume, root distribution and yield of avocado under drip irrigation
The effect of three water use (WU) levels corresponding to 0.3, 0.6 and 0.9 Ep (Ep=Evaporation ''A'' pan) on wetted soil volume, root distribution and yield of avocado cv. Fuerte was investigated over a 5-year period at Chania, Greece.The average amounts of irrigation water applied annually (in addition to rain) for the three WU levels were 238, 553 and 868 mm, respectively. Soil volumes, with a volumetric soil water content percentage (theta) corresponding to a soil water potential (psi(s)) higher
Yield and fruit quality of avocado trees under different regimes of water supply in the subtropical coast of Spain
The subtropical Mediterranean climate of southeastern Andalusian coast allows Spain to be the largest European producer of subtropical fruit, with the avocado as the main representative. In this region, precipitations are scarce and erratic and limit water availability for irrigation. Under this climatic uncertainty, appropriate water use is required for assuring crop environmental sustainability and increasing water productivity (WP) of avocado orchards. For this purpose, it is necessary to evaluate
Physiological and Molecular Responses of ‘Dusa’ Avocado Rootstock to Water Stress: Insights for Drought Adaptation
Avocado consumption is increasing year by year, and its cultivation has spread to many countries with low water availability, which threatens the sustainability and profitability of avocado orchards. However, to date, there is not much information on the behavior of commercial avocado rootstocks against drought. The aim of this research was to evaluate the physiological and molecular responses of ‘Dusa’ avocado rootstock to different levels of water stress. Plants were deficit irrigated until
Mitigating negative effects of long-term treated wastewater application via soil and irrigation manipulations: Sap flow and water relations of avocado trees (Persea americana Mill.)
Recent studies have shown significant negative effects of long-term irrigation with treated wastewater (TWW) on performance of orchards planted on clay soil. The aim of this study was to evaluate water use and water relations of different mitigation measures to remedy the declining performance of a mature commercial fruit-bearing 'Hass' avocado orchard (Persea americana Mill.) growing in a clay soil irrigated with TWW since 2009. The mitigation measures, each in 6 replicates, included freshwater
Mitigating negative effects of long-term treated wastewater irrigation: Leaf gas exchange and water use efficiency response of avocado trees (Persea americana Mill.)
Declining performance of avocado orchards growing in a clayey soil irrigated with treated wastewater (TWW) for more than 5 years has been observed in Israel. Measures studied to mitigate this were freshwater (FW), blended TWW:FW in a 1:1 ratio (MIX), low-frequency TWW-irrigation (LFI), TWW irrigated tuff trenches (TUF) and TWW as the control treatment. This study reports on the response of avocado leaf gas exchange, intrinsic water use efficiency, leaf water potential and leaf hydraulic conductance