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The effect of irrigation on the growth, cropping and nutrition of Cox’s Orange Pippin apple trees

1971; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 46; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/00221589.1971.11514398

0022-1589

J. E. Goode, J. Ingram,

Horticultural and Viticultural Research

SummaryCox's Orange Pippin apple trees on M.II rootstock growing in grass on a coarse sandy loam of medium moisture retention were used to study growth and crop responses to irrigation from 1958 to 1966 inclusive. Treatments A, B and C consisted of 1, 2 and 3 in† of water applied at calculated soil moisture deficits of 1, 3 and 5 in respectively. The trees in Treatment D were not irrigated.Soil moisture deficits calculated from potential evaporation over-estimated measured soil moisture deficits by as much as 20%.Shoot and trunk growth were stimulated by irrigation during the first four years, but when the trees began to bear heavy crops the effects of watering on growth diminished considerably.Heavy bearing was not delayed by the vigorous growth induced by irrigation, and at full bearing crop yields were commensurate with the growth made. In three successive years of high yields the trees under Treatments A, B and C yielded 42%, 37% and 25% more respectively than the unwatered trees.Treatment A was uneconomical compared with B, and the latter afforded better cropping potentialities than Treatment C. There was no consistently positive effect of irrigation on fruit size, but a larger crop was generally carried on the irrigated trees without loss of size compared with the unwatered trees.In the eighth and ninth years of the experiment there was an abrupt depression in yield which was strongly associated with a depression in leaf Ca and Mg levels and an increase in the level of leaf K. Irrigated trees were more seriously affected than unirrigated trees. A nutritional effect of irrigation on the level of cropping was indicated but not established.