Water requirement and water use efficiency of fresh and waiting-bed strawberry plants

Water requirement and water use efficiency (WUE) were determined for strawberries (Fragaria x ananassa Duch. `Chandler') in Tucuman (INTA-Famailla, Argentina). In 1995, two types of plants were compared: fresh (F) and waiting-bed (WB) plants. Water was applied to partially or fully compensate deficits (D) in the hydrologic balance (HB=Precipitation-ET Penman approximate to-500 mm), according to the following treatment schedules: T1-50% of D 3-times/week, T2-50% of D 5-times/ week, T3-50% of D daily, and T4-soil moisture was maintained at field capacity based on tensiometer readings. The T4 schedule resulted in the highest yield due to significantly increased fruit number and fruit weight. The amount of water required to maintain soil moisture at field capacity in T4 (518 mm) was approximately equal to D. Compared to F plants, WB plants had greater yield (3.5 kg. m(-2) versus 2.2 kg. m(-2)) and greater WUE, expressed in grams of fruit per liter of water received (5.2 g.L-1 versus 3.2 g.L-1). WUE was not statistically different among treatments and ranged from 4.0 to 4.5 g.L-1, indicating that water stress did not affect WUE; however, WUE tended to decrease with increasing irrigation. The T4 schedule was adopted to irrigate F `Chandler' plants in 1997 producing similar results to those of the 1995 trial.