Relationships Between Midday Stem Water Potential and Soil Water Content in Grapevines and Peach and Pear Trees
Monitoring the water status of fruit orchards is required to optimize crop water management and determine irrigation scheduling. For this purpose, capacitance probes are commonly used to measure soil water content (θ<sub>s</sub>). However, when these probes are not calibrated, the estima...
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MDPI AG
2025-05-01
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| author | José Manuel Mirás-Avalos Emily Silva Araujo |
| author_facet | José Manuel Mirás-Avalos Emily Silva Araujo |
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| description | Monitoring the water status of fruit orchards is required to optimize crop water management and determine irrigation scheduling. For this purpose, capacitance probes are commonly used to measure soil water content (θ<sub>s</sub>). However, when these probes are not calibrated, the estimates of θ<sub>s</sub> are, therefore, unreliable. Our objective was to relate the measurements of capacitance probes, without a site-specific calibration, with a reliable indicator of the water status (stem water potential at solar noon (Ψ<sub>stem</sub>)) of rain-fed grapevines grown under contrasting soil management strategies (tillage and spontaneous vegetation) and of irrigated peach and pear trees. During the 2023 growing season, θ<sub>s</sub> was monitored in a peach and a pear orchard and in a vineyard in northeast Spain using capacitance sensors at three depths: 0.15, 0.30, and 0.45 m. Correlation coefficients ranged from 0.75 to 0.87 in peach trees, from 0.53 to 0.56 in pear trees, and from 0.56 to 0.90 in grapevines, depending on soil depth. These relationships were significant for both peach trees and grapevines but not for pear trees. Under the conditions of this study, uncalibrated capacitance measurements of θ<sub>s</sub> could be useful to assess grapevine and peach tree water status in real time but were limited for pear trees. |
| format | Article |
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| institution | Kabale University |
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| language | English |
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| spelling | doaj-art-4f05ce8e7ca14670ac0e92f243760c9e2025-08-20T03:47:48ZengMDPI AGAgronomy2073-43952025-05-01155125710.3390/agronomy15051257Relationships Between Midday Stem Water Potential and Soil Water Content in Grapevines and Peach and Pear TreesJosé Manuel Mirás-Avalos0Emily Silva Araujo1Departamento de Sistemas Agrícolas, Forestales y Medio Ambiente, Centro de Investigación y Tecnología Agroalimentaria de Aragón (CITA), Avda. Montañana 930, 50059 Zaragoza, SpainDepartamento de Sistemas Agrícolas, Forestales y Medio Ambiente, Centro de Investigación y Tecnología Agroalimentaria de Aragón (CITA), Avda. Montañana 930, 50059 Zaragoza, SpainMonitoring the water status of fruit orchards is required to optimize crop water management and determine irrigation scheduling. For this purpose, capacitance probes are commonly used to measure soil water content (θ<sub>s</sub>). However, when these probes are not calibrated, the estimates of θ<sub>s</sub> are, therefore, unreliable. Our objective was to relate the measurements of capacitance probes, without a site-specific calibration, with a reliable indicator of the water status (stem water potential at solar noon (Ψ<sub>stem</sub>)) of rain-fed grapevines grown under contrasting soil management strategies (tillage and spontaneous vegetation) and of irrigated peach and pear trees. During the 2023 growing season, θ<sub>s</sub> was monitored in a peach and a pear orchard and in a vineyard in northeast Spain using capacitance sensors at three depths: 0.15, 0.30, and 0.45 m. Correlation coefficients ranged from 0.75 to 0.87 in peach trees, from 0.53 to 0.56 in pear trees, and from 0.56 to 0.90 in grapevines, depending on soil depth. These relationships were significant for both peach trees and grapevines but not for pear trees. Under the conditions of this study, uncalibrated capacitance measurements of θ<sub>s</sub> could be useful to assess grapevine and peach tree water status in real time but were limited for pear trees.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4395/15/5/1257capacitance sensorsprecision agriculturestem water potentialwoody crops |
| spellingShingle | José Manuel Mirás-Avalos Emily Silva Araujo Relationships Between Midday Stem Water Potential and Soil Water Content in Grapevines and Peach and Pear Trees Agronomy capacitance sensors precision agriculture stem water potential woody crops |
| title | Relationships Between Midday Stem Water Potential and Soil Water Content in Grapevines and Peach and Pear Trees |
| title_full | Relationships Between Midday Stem Water Potential and Soil Water Content in Grapevines and Peach and Pear Trees |
| title_fullStr | Relationships Between Midday Stem Water Potential and Soil Water Content in Grapevines and Peach and Pear Trees |
| title_full_unstemmed | Relationships Between Midday Stem Water Potential and Soil Water Content in Grapevines and Peach and Pear Trees |
| title_short | Relationships Between Midday Stem Water Potential and Soil Water Content in Grapevines and Peach and Pear Trees |
| title_sort | relationships between midday stem water potential and soil water content in grapevines and peach and pear trees |
| topic | capacitance sensors precision agriculture stem water potential woody crops |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4395/15/5/1257 |
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