Hostname: page-component-7dd5485656-pnlb5 Total loading time: 0.001 Render date: 2025-10-29T15:28:06.617Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Growth and physiological responses of the citrus rootstock Swingle citrumelo seedlings to partial rootzone drying and deficit irrigation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2010

J. C. MELGAR ,
J. M. DUNLOP  and
J. P. SYVERTSEN
J. C. MELGAR*
Affiliation:
Citrus Research and Education Center, University of Florida/IFAS, 700 Experiment Station Road, Lake Alfred, FL 33850, USA
J. M. DUNLOP
Affiliation:
Citrus Research and Education Center, University of Florida/IFAS, 700 Experiment Station Road, Lake Alfred, FL 33850, USA
J. P. SYVERTSEN
Affiliation:
Citrus Research and Education Center, University of Florida/IFAS, 700 Experiment Station Road, Lake Alfred, FL 33850, USA
*
*To whom all correspondence should be addressed. Email: jcmelgar@crec.ifas.ufl.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

The effects of deficit irrigation (DI) and partial rootzone drying (PRD) on the growth and mineral nutrition of citrus rootstock seedlings in the glasshouse were determined, as well as the potential of DI and PRD to trigger root-to-shoot signalling of abscisic acid (ABA) to increase the growth per amount of water used (water use efficiency (WUE)). In the DI study, 3-month-old seedlings of the important citrus rootstock Swingle citrumelo with intact roots received three irrigation treatments: control (1·00 evapotranspiration (ET)), 0·75 ET and 0·50 ET. DI clearly decreased growth, the net assimilation of CO2 (ACO2), WUE and the total content of N and K in leaves, even though concentrations of leaf N and K were increased in the drought-stressed smaller plants. Root K was not affected by DI treatments. Leaf ABA concentration increased linearly with DI. For the PRD study, root systems of 6-month-old Swingle citrumelo were split into half and allowed to become established in adjacent pots. There were three irrigation treatments: control (1·00 of the total crop ET, 0·50 in each pot), PRD 50-0 (0·50 ET by weight applied to only one-half of root zone) and DI 25-25 (0·50 ET in total, with 0·25 ET applied to each root half). Although the total root length was decreased by the DI 25-25 treatment, PRD 50-0 did not affect any growth characteristics compared to control plants. The dry root zone of the PRD 50-0 treatment had a higher specific root length, longer roots per dry weight, than the wet root zone. Leaf ACO2 and WUE of the DI 25-25 treatment were significantly lower than control plants after 11 weeks. Although the total contents of N and K in leaves were not affected by either PRD treatment, the concentrations of N and K in leaves were increased by DI 25-25. Root K was decreased by PRD treatments. Leaf ABA concentration was increased by PRD 50-0 but not by DI 25-25. Although all drought stress treatments increased the levels of ABA in leaves, DI and PRD treatments did not affect the whole plant WUE. Compared to well-irrigated control plants, DI reduced growth, whereas PRD 50-0 did not.

Information

Type
Crops and Soils
Information
The Journal of Agricultural Science , Volume 148 , Issue 5 , October 2010 , pp. 593 - 602
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

REFERENCES

AOAC (2000). Official Methods of Analysis of AOAC International, 17th edn. Gaithersburg, MD: Association of Official Analytical Chemists.Google Scholar
Bray, E. A., Shih, T. Y., Moses, M. S., Cohen, A., Imai, R. & Plant, A. L. (1999). Water-deficit induction of a tomato H1 histone requires abscisic acid. Plant Growth Regulation 29, 35–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chalmers, D. J., Mitchell, P. D. & Van Heek, L. (1981). Control of peach tree growth and productivity by regulated water supply, tree density and summer pruning. Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science 106, 307–312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cifre, J., Bota, J., Escalona, J. M., Medrano, H. & Flexas, J. (2005). Physiological tools for irrigation scheduling in grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) – an open gate to improve water-use efficiency? Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 106, 159–170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Croker, J. L., Witte, W. T. & Auge, R. M. (1998). Stomatal sensitivity of six temperate, deciduous tree species to non-hydraulic root-to-shoot signalling of partial soil drying. Journal of Experimental Botany 49, 761–774.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davies, J. W. & Zhang, J. (1991). Root signals and the regulation of growth and development of plants in drying soil. Annual Review of Plant Physiology and Plant Molecular Biology 42, 55–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dodd, I. C. (2007). Soil moisture heterogeneity during deficit irrigation alters root-to-shoot signalling of abscisic acid. Functional Plant Biology 34, 439–448.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dodd, I. C., Egea, G. & Davies, W. J. (2008 a). Abscisic acid signalling when soil moisture is heterogeneous: decreased photoperiod sap flow from drying roots limits abscisic acid export to the shoots. Plant, Cell and Environment 31, 1263–1274.Google Scholar
Dodd, I. C., Egea, G. & Davies, W. J. (2008 b). Accounting for sap flow from different parts of the root system improves the prediction of xylem ABA concentration in plants grown with heterogeneous soil moisture. Journal of Experimental Botany 59, 4083–4093.Google Scholar
Dry, P. R. & Loveys, B. R. (1998). Factors influencing grapevine vigour and the potential for control with partial rootzone drying. Australian Journal of Grape and Wine Research 4, 140–148.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dry, P. R., Loveys, B. R., McCarthy, M. G. & Stoll, M. (2001). Strategic irrigation management in Australian vineyards. Journal International de Sciences de la Vigne et du Vin 35, 129–139.Google Scholar
Farquhar, G. D. & Sharkey, T. D. (1982). Stomatal conductance and photosynthesis. Annual Review of Plant Physiology and Plant Molecular Biology 33, 317–345.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fereres, E. & Soriano, M. A. (2007). Deficit irrigation for reducing agricultural water use. Journal of Experimental Botany 58, 147–159.Google Scholar
Goldhamer, D. A., Salinas, M., Crisosto, C., Day, K. R., Soler, M. & Moriana, A. (2002). Effects of regulated deficit irrigation and partial root zone drying on late harvest peach tree performance. Acta Horticulturae 592, 343–350.Google Scholar
Gong, D. Z., Wang, J. P. & Kang, S. Z. (2001). Variation of root and trunk sap flow rate under different soil water wetting patterns. Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineers 17, 34–38.Google Scholar
Hu, M. J., Guo, Y. P., Shen, Y. G., Guo, D. P. & Li, D. Y. (2009). Midday depression of photosynthesis and effects of mist spray in citrus. Annals of Applied Biology 154, 143–155.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hutton, R. J. (2004). Effects of cultural management and different irrigation regimes on tree growth, production, fruit quality and water relations of sweet orange C. sinensis (L.) Osbeck. PhD thesis, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.Google Scholar
Jifon, J. L. & Syvertsen, J. P. (2003). Moderate shade can increase net gas exchange and reduce photoinhibition in citrus leaves. Tree Physiology 23, 119–127.Google Scholar
Jones, H. G. (1992). Plants and Microclimate: A Quantitative Approach to Environmental Plant Physiology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kang, S. Z., Hu, X., Goodwin, I. & Jerie, P. (2002). Soil water distribution, water use, and yield response to partial root zone drying under a shallow groundwater table condition in a pear orchard. Scientia Horticulturae 92, 277–291.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marsal, J., Mata, M., Del Campo, J., Arbones, A., Vallverdú, X., Girona, J. & Olivo, N. (2008). Evaluation of partial root-zone drying for potential field use as a deficit irrigation technique in commercial vineyards according to two different pipeline layouts. Irrigation Science 26, 347–356.Google Scholar
McCutchan, H. & Shackel, K. A. (1992). Stem-water potential as a sensitive indicator of water stress in Prune trees (Prunus domestica L. cv. French). Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science 117, 607–611.Google Scholar
Pérez-Pérez, J. G., Romero, P., Navarro, J. M. & Botía, P. (2008). Response of sweet orange cv. ‘Lane late’ to deficit irrigation in two rootstocks. I: water relations, leaf gas exchange and vegetative growth. Irrigation Science 26, 415–425.Google Scholar
Quarrie, S. A., Whitford, P. N., Appleford, N. E. J., Wang, T. L., Cook, S. K., Henson, I. E. & Loveys, B. R. (1988). A monoclonal antibody to (S)-abscisic acid: its characterisation and use in a radioimmunoassay for measuring abscisic acid in crude extracts of cereal and lupin leaves. Planta 173, 330–339.Google Scholar
Raveh, E. (2008). Partial root-zone drying as a possible replacement for ‘Verdelli’ practice in lemon production. Acta Horticulturae 792, 537–542.Google Scholar
Sadras, V. O. (2009). Does partial root-zone drying improve irrigation water productivity in the field? A meta-analysis. Irrigation Science 27, 183–190.Google Scholar
Scholander, P. F., Hammel, H. T., Bradstreet, E. D. & Hemmingsen, E. A. (1965). Sap pressure in vascular plants. Science 148, 339–345.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schumann, A. W., Syvertsen, J. P. & Morgan, K. T. (2009). Implementing advanced citrus production systems in Florida – early results. Proceedings of the Florida State Horticultural Society 122, 108–113.Google Scholar
Schurr, U., Gollan, T. & Schulze, E. D. (1992). Stomatal response to drying soil in relation to changes in the xylem sap composition of Helianthus annuus. II. Stomatal sensitivity to abscisic acid imported from the xylem sap. Plant, Cell and Environment 15, 561–567.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sharp, R. E. & Davies, W. J. (1989). Regulation of growth and development of plants growing with a restricted supply of water. In Plants Under Stress (Eds Jones, H. G., Flowers, T. L. & Jones, M. B.), pp. 71–93. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spollen, W. G., LeNoble, M. E., Samuels, T. D., Bernstein, N. & Sharp, R. E. (2000). Abscisic acid accumulation maintains maize primary root elongation at low water potentials by restricting ethylene production. Plant Physiology 122, 967–976.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stoll, M., Loveys, B. & Dry, P. (2000). Hormonal changes induced by partial rootzone drying of irrigated grapevine. Journal of Experimental Botany 51, 1627–1634.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Syvertsen, J. P. (1985). Integration of water stress in fruit trees. HortScience 20, 1039–1043.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tardieu, F. & Davies, W. J. (1993). Integration of hydraulic and chemical signalling in the control of stomatal conductance and water status of droughted plants. Plant, Cell and Environment 16, 341–349.Google Scholar
Tardieu, F., Zhang, J. & Gowing, D. J. G. (1993). Stomatal control by both [ABA] in the xylem sap and leaf water status: a test of a model for droughted ABA-fed field-grown maize. Plant, Cell and Environment 16, 413–420.Google Scholar
Tennant, D. (1975). A test of a modified line intersect method of estimating root length. Journal of Ecology 63, 995–1001.Google Scholar
Tognetti, R., D'Andria, R., Morelli, G. & Alvino, A. (2005). The effect of deficit irrigation on seasonal variations of plant water use in Olea europaea L. Plant and Soil 273, 139–155.Google Scholar
Trewavas, A. J. & Jones, H. G. (1991). An assessment of the role of ABA in plant development. In Abscisic Acid: Physiology and Biochemistry (Eds Davies, W. J. & Jones, H. G.), pp. 169–188. Oxford, UK: Bios Scientific Publishers.Google Scholar
Yao, C., Moreshet, S. & Aloni, B. (2001). Water relations and hydraulic control of stomatal behaviour in bell pepper plant in partial soil drying. Plant, Cell and Environment 24, 227–235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zekri, M. & Parsons, L. R. (1990). Response of split-root sour orange seedlings to NaCl and polyethylene glycol stresses. Journal of Experimental Botany 41, 35–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhang, J. & Davies, W. J. (1989). Sequential responses of whole plant water relations towards prolonged soil drying and the involvement of xylem sap ABA in the regulation of stomatal behaviour of sunflower plants. New Phytologist 113, 167–174.Google Scholar