EFFECT OF DEFICIT IRRIGATION ON QUALITY INDICATORS OF APRICOT FRUITS AFTER HARVESTING AND STORAGE
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51258/RJH.2020.22Keywords:
Prunus Armeniaca L., climate conditions, soil water potential, fruit firmness, ascorbic acidAbstract
Trees irrigation is one of the major activities because the fruit production is proportional to water use. The current decrease of water resources leads to the urgent need to adopt a strategy which could be applied to efficiently utilize water without affecting the growth, yield and fruit quality. Therefore, deficit irrigation is an alternative. The crop studied was apricot, 'Orizont' cultivar, 13 years old, grafted on the 'Constanta 14' rootstock. The planting distance was 4 m between the rows and 5 m between trees on the row. The split-plot experiment described here is monofactorial with irrigation strategy having three graduations. The irrigation regime consists of a fully irrigated treatment (b1, non-stressed) according to the irrigation needs (100% of ETc = ETo x Kc), a deficit irrigation treatment (b2) irrigated with half the amount of water in b1 (50% of ETc), and a control, non-irrigated treatment (b3). These plots comprised three adjacent fruit tree rows, with the central row containing five trees for measurements and observations. This research aims to study the effects of deficit irrigation on some quality indicators of apricot fruits after harvest and storage. Fruits in the b3 treatment were much firmer, followed by the fruits from the b2 treatment. The study suggests that moderate deficit irrigation can be profitable for enhancing key fruit quality characteristics.
Downloads
References
Allen, R.G., Pereira, L., Raes, D., and Smith, M. (1998). Crop evapotranspiration- Guidelines for computing crop water requirements. FAO Irrig. and Drain. Paper 56, Rome, Italy, p. 301. https://appgeodb.nancy.inra.fr/biljou/pdf/Allen_FAO1998.pdf
Castel, J. R., and Buj, A. (1990). Response of Salustiana oranges to high frequency deficit irrigation. Irrig. Sci. 11, 121-127. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00188448
Goto,M., Minamide,T. and Iwata,T.(2011). Influence of cultivars and harvest maturity on the chilling sensitivity and on the effect of cold-shock treatment for preventing the chilling injury in Mume (Japanese apricot Prunus mume Sieb. et Zucc.) fruits. Journal of Japanese Institute of Cold Chain, vol. 12 (1), 17–24.
Hoffman, G.J., Towell, T.A. and Solomon, K.H. (1990). Management of farm irrigation systems. ASAE, St. Joseph, MI, USA. https://eprints.nwisrl.ars.usda.gov/805/1/733.pdf
Moradinezhad, F. and Jahani, M. (2016). Quality improvement and shelf life extension of fresh apricot fruit (Prunus Armeniaca cv. Shahroudi) using postharvest chemical treatments and packaging during cold storage. International Journal of Horticultural Science and Technology, vol. 3 (1), 9–18.
Paltineanu, Cr., Mihailescu, I.F., Seceleanu, I., Dragota, C.,, and Vasenciuc, F. (2007). Using aridity indexes to describe some climate and soil features in Eastern Europe: a Romanian case study. Theoretical and applied climatology, Springer Velag Vienna, Volume 90 (3-4), 263-274. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00704-007-0295-3.
Paltineanu, C., Septar, L., Moale, C., Oprita, A., and Lamureanu, G., (2011b). Peach irrigation under soil water stress in the south-eastern part of Romania. Acta Horticulturae 922, 195-202. https://www.actahort.org/members/showpdf?booknrarnr=922_25&session=29159&justloggedin=2
Roccuzzo, G., Villalobos,F. J., Testi,L. and Fereres, E.(2014). Effects of water deficits on whole tree water use efficiency of orange. Agricultural Water Management, Volume 140, 61-68.
World Reference Base for Soil Resources (2006). A framework for international classification, correlation and communication. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, p. 145 http://epic.awi.de/35324/1/wsrr103e.pdf
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2020 ROMANIAN JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
