Comparison of the water potential baseline in different locations. Usefulness for irrigation scheduling of olive orchards

Abstract

Deficit irrigation scheduling needs accurate indicators and in recent decades, continuous plant indicators have been developed. However, threshold values that could be useful in commercial orchards are not commonly reported. The water potential is a discontinuous measurement commonly used as a reference in the description of water stress level. In some fruit trees, such as olive trees, there are several works suggesting threshold values in fully irrigated conditions, but the influence of the evaporative demand is not taken into account. The aim of this work is to compare the values of the fully irrigated water potential in different locations in order to study the estimation of a common baseline. Three mature olive orchards were selected, two in Seville (South Spain) and one in Ciudad Real (Central Spain). There were clear differences between the three orchards during the 2015 season. Orchards in Seville (S-1 and S-2) were close (10 km apart) and had the same cultivar (table olive, cv Manzanilla) but they were different in terms of the fruit load (almost no fruit in S-1, medium fruit load in S-2) and distribution of water (single drip line in S-1, double drip line in S-2). The orchard in Ciudad Real (CR) was very different with regards to the olive cultivar (cv Cornicabra) and the location, as it was in a borderline zone for olives growing with very low temperatures that delay the phenological development. In all the orchards, the best baseline was obtained with different climatic measurements, even in S-1 and S-2. When all the data were considered, the best fit was obtained with the average vapour pressure deficit (VPDav). Influence of the location was significant in the interception term of the equations when Temperature was used but not with VPD. This source of variation was reltade with the level of fruit load. Slope of the equations was not affected for the location. The equation obtained was validated with water potential data from previous seasons of S-1 and CR orchards. Maximum temperature presented the best validation results. The usefulness of this baseline is discussed.