Water Table Control for Increasing Yield and Saving Water in Cranberry Production

Sustainability

Vincent Pelletier¹  Jacques Gallichand²  Silvio Gumiere²  Steeve Pepin²  Jean Caron² 

[1] Department of Soil and Agri-Food Engineering, Université Laval, 2425 rue de l’Agriculture, Québec, QC G1V 0A6, Canada;

关键词: cranberries;    water table;    subirrigation;    drainage;    irrigation;    yield components;    yield quality;    sugar content;   

DOI  :  10.3390/su70810602

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Water table control has been successfully tested to improve the sustainability of water management in cranberry production. In the province of Québec (Canada), three sites were investigated to determine the optimum water table depth below soil surface (WTD) using three criteria: (1) increasing yield without decreasing fruit quality; (2) minimizing the amount of water needed by the sprinkler system; and (3) avoiding hypoxic stresses in the rhizosphere. Our results show that the final yield, the berry sugar content, the total number of berries, the number of berries per upright, and the fruit set were maximized when the WTD was 60 cm. Sprinkler water savings of 77% were obtained where the WTD was shallower than 66 cm. In order to avoid hypoxic conditions due to poor drainage, the water level in the canals surrounding the beds should be lowered to 80 cm when a rainfall or a frost protection irrigation is anticipated. All sides of a block of beds must be surrounded by canals to ensure a uniform WTD and to avoid lateral hydraulic gradients that could cause peripheral seepage losses.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.