Modern practices in irrigation regime of fruit trees grown in water deficit conditions

Project description

The goal of the project is to develop a methodology for irrigation management of core and stone fruits based on the assessment of moisture conditions in orchards and the physiological needs of fruit species in accordance with the strategies and directions of the development of Czech fruit growing, and thus a new, more precise place for growers
procedures limiting the impact of water scarcity and enabling the use of water resources. Develop a method for determining irrigation needs using a model of irrigation conditions taking into account meteorological elements, soil factors, and phenological phases of tree species using measurements in trial plantings. The aim of the project is also to evaluate the quality and the date of ripening of fruits depending on the different moisture regimes of core and stone fruits in orchards.

Detail information

The project will focus on optimizing the irrigation regime in fruit orchards. There will be an evaluation of the possibilities of using controlled deficit irrigation in selected phases of the development of fruit trees during the vegetation. Research into the physiological reactions of tree species to stress will allow setting moisture limits for selected fruit species and evaluating the need for irrigation calculated on the basis of outputs from the agroclimatological model. The analysis of soil hydrolimits and the availability of water in the root zone will allow the use of water from supplementary irrigation. The output of the project will be a methodology for determining the irrigation needs of orchards in different soil-climatic and weather conditions. The project will further evaluate the influence of the water regime on the total amount of production and fruit quality. After the empirical evaluation, the characteristics of the fruits related to the ripening date and their storage will be determined using non-destructive NIR spectroscopy methods. Calibration software will be created to use these methods for practice. The uniqueness and originality of the project lie primarily in the project's complexity of solving the problem - focused on key aspects of the technology of irrigation of various types of fruit trees and integrating knowledge and several specialized scientific fields. The project involves 4 research organizations (VŠÚO Holovousy, VÚRV Ruzyně, UHK, ČHMÚ) and 3 users - companies (EB FRUT, AMET, PÁTRIA Kobylí).

Project team

Principal investigator: Research and breeding institute for fruit Holovousy s.r.o., Ing. Martin Mészáros Ph.D.
Co-researcher 1: Czech Hydrometeorological Institute
Co-researcher 2: PATRIA Kobylí, a.s.
Co-investigator 3: Petr Kareš
Co-investigator 4: RNDr. Tomas Litschmann
Co-researcher 5: University of Hradec Králové, Faculty of Science, Department of Biology and Department of Cybernetics, key person of the research team RNDr. Lenka Plavcová, Ph.D.
Co-investigator 6: Research Institute of Plant Production, v.v.i.

Project supervisor

RNDr became the chairman. Lenka Plavcová, Ph.D.