Vol. 34 Núm. 3 - Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales ...

Soil water content measured by FDR probes and thresholds for drip irrigation management in peach trees 321corresponding upper 142 mm 0.5 m -1 and lower 128 mm 0.5m -1 thresholds of the soil water content needed to schedule adrip irrigation that supplies the plant water requirements withthe minimum of undesired water losses. Also, it was possibleto reduce irrigation water from 222 to 116 mm, with no effecton plant productive potential; moreover, it increased thewater use efficiency from 2.7 kg m -3 to 5.0 kg m -3 .ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSThis study was supported by Ministerio de Educacióny Ciencia (MEC), (CICYT- AGL2002-04048-C03-03;AGL2004-0794-C03-02) and AECI (769/03) grants to theauthor O. Mounzer and I. Abrisqueta received researchfellowships (FPI) from MEC of Spain.REFERENCESAllen, R. G.; Pereira, J. S.; Raes, D. and Smith, M. 1998.Crop evapotranspiration: guidelines for computingcrop water requirements. Vol. 56. Food andAgriculture Organization of the United Nations(FAO), Rome, 300 pp.Australian Academy of Technological Sciences andEngineering. 1999. Water and the Australianeconomy: a joint study project of the AustralianAcademy of Technological Sciences and Engineeringand the Institution of Engineers, Australia. AustralianAcademy of Technological Sciences and Engineering,Parkville, Victoria, Australia.Consejería de Agricultura, Agua y Medio ambiente Regiónde Murcia, (CAAMA) 2000. Memoria 1999/2000.España. 222 pp.Dane, J. H. and Topp, G. C. 2002. Methods of soil analysis.Part 4: Physical methods. Soil Science of AmericaBooks Series: 5. Madison, WI: Soil Science ofAmerica.Dean, T. J.; Bell, J. P. and Baty, A. J. B. 1987. Soil moisturemeasurement by an improved capacitance technique,Part I. sensor design and performance. Journal ofHydrology 93:67-78.Doorenbos, J. and Pruitt, W. O. 1986. Las necesidades deagua de los cultivos. Vol. 24. Food and AgricultureOrganization of the United Nations (FAO), Rome,194 p.Elmaloglou, S. T. and Malamos, N. 2006. A methodologyfor determining the surface and vertical componentsof the wetting front under a surface point source,with root water uptake and evaporation. Irrigationand Drainage. 55:99-111.Fereres, E. and Goldhamer, D. A. 1990. Deciduous fruitand nut trees. In: Irrigation of Agricultural Crops.Steward, B. A. and Nielsen, D. R. (Eds.), Agronomyn.° 30. Published by ASA, CSSA y SSA, Madison.Wisconsin. USA. 987-1017.Goldhamer, D. A.; Fereres, E.; Mata, M.; Girona, J. andCohen, M. 1999. Sensitivity of continuous anddiscrete plant and soil water status monitoring inpeach trees subjected to deficit irrigation. Journalof American Society for Horticultural Science.124:437-444.Hsiao, T. C. 1990. Measurements of plant water status.In: Stewart, B. A. Nielsen, D. R. (eds.) Irrigation ofagricultural crops. American Society of AgronomyMonograph n. o 30, Madison, Wisconsin, pp 243-279.Intrigliolo, D. S. and Castel, J. R. 2004. Continuousmeasurement of plant and soil water status forirrigation scheduling in plum. Irrigation Science.23:93-102. DOI 10.1007/s00271-004-0097-7.Jones, H. G. 2004. Irrigation scheduling: advantagesand pitfalls of plant-based methods. Journal ofExperimental Botany. 55, 2427-2436.Jury, W. A.; Gardner, W. R. and Gardner, W. H. 1991. Soilphysics. John Willey and Sons, Inc. New York. 328pp.Lampinen, B. D.; Shackel, K. A.; Southwick, S. M.; Olson,B.; Goldhamer, D. and Yeager, J. T. 1995. Sensitivityof yield and fruit quality of French prune to waterdeprivation at different fruit growth stages. Journalof American Society for Horticultural Science.120(2):139-147.Mc Cutchan, H. and Shackel, K. A. 1992. Stem-waterpotential as a sensitive indicator of water stressin prune trees (Prunus domestica L. cv. French).Journal of American Society for HorticulturalScience. 117(4):607-611.Meyer, W. S. and Nobel, C. L. 1993. Assessing the impactof irrigation on resources: irrigation managementto meet environmental constraints. In: IrrigationAssociation of Australia Proceedings, Launceston,Tasmania, Australia, p. 17.Michelakis, N.; Vougioucalou, E. and Clapaki G. 1993.Water use, wetted soil volume, root distribution andyield of avocado under drip irrigation. AgriculturalWater Management 24, 119-131.