EFFECT OF SOIL MOISTURE STRESS ON APPLE TREES

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Soil, Water and Environment Research Institute, Agricultural Research Center, Giza, Egypt

2 Horticultural Research Institute, Agricultural Research Center, Giza, Egypt

Abstract

Seasonal rates of water consumptive use by apple trees ranged from 85.58 to 120.18cm under differentt soil moisture levels. The val­ues of water consumption was increased as soil moisture maintained high by frequent irrigation. Monthly water use was found to be low after dor­mancy, then increased gradually to reach a maximum during July andAugust. Thereafter, the rates started to decline to reach its minimum during November when the trees were going to dormant period. Apple roots extract 70% of their moisture need from the first foot of soil pro­file. Seasonal crop coefficient was found to be 0.66. Results showed that the moist treatment (40% of availble soil moisture is depleted) had the highest water use efficiency (1.00 kg fruit/m3 ET) compared with other soil moisture levels. Water deficit enhanced bud development. However, keeping the soil moisture at a high level delayed bud burst process. Bud burst percentage increased as soil moisture stress increased. However, fruit setting showed a reverse trend to that observed with bud burst. Adequate water supply at the root zone of apple trees is important in reducing the percentage of fruit shedding or fruit drop. The moist soil moistre level out-yielded the other irrigation treatments. The highest val­ues of fruit characters i.e. fruit weight, fruit diameter or length and vol­ume was gained from the moist treatment. However fruit quality i.e. firmness, total soluble solids and acidity showed a reverse trend to that observed with other fruit charcters. Also, moist soil moisture level led to high concentrations of leaf mineral content than other treatments.

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