TY - JOUR
T1 - An artificial capillary barrier to improve root-zone conditions for horticultural crops
T2 - Response of pepper plants to matric head and irrigation water salinity
AU - Ityel, Eviatar
AU - Lazarovitch, Naftali
AU - Silberbush, Moshe
AU - Ben-Gal, Alon
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was made possible through support from Central and Northern Arava Research and Development . We would like to thank: Inna Faingold of the Gilat Research Center and Ami Maduel, Dov Adler, Rivka Offenbach, and Shabtai Cohen of Arava R&D for their technical support and advice. This project was partially supported by the Jewish Colonization Association (ICA) charitable foundation, Israel.
PY - 2012/3/1
Y1 - 2012/3/1
N2 - Reduced water availability and increased salinity result in similar plant responses including reduced root mass and conductivity with consequential reduced transpiration and biomass production. We hypothesized that the increased soil matric head created by a capillary barrier (CB) positioned at the bottom of the root-zone would improve plant production, especially when irrigated with brackish water. Field and lysimeter studies were conducted with bell pepper (Capsicum annuum) plants, comparing root-zones with and without an underlying CB, irrigated either with desalinated (DW, EC=0.2dSm -1) or brackish (SW, EC=3.8dSm -1) water, at various rates.When irrigated with SW, plants grown above a CB yielded 24% higher biomass than control plants (without CB) for all irrigation applications. But, when DW was applied, only a 6% advantage for the CB root-zone was observed. Biomass yield with the CB treatment was only slightly affected by water salinity while without CB, yields significantly decreased when irrigated with SW. The extent of evapotranspiration, plant growth and yield responses to the presence of a CB appeared to be climate dependent. When vapor pressure deficit (VPD) was low (i.e. <1.5. kPa), smaller responses were measured, while more pronounced response was found when VPD increased.
AB - Reduced water availability and increased salinity result in similar plant responses including reduced root mass and conductivity with consequential reduced transpiration and biomass production. We hypothesized that the increased soil matric head created by a capillary barrier (CB) positioned at the bottom of the root-zone would improve plant production, especially when irrigated with brackish water. Field and lysimeter studies were conducted with bell pepper (Capsicum annuum) plants, comparing root-zones with and without an underlying CB, irrigated either with desalinated (DW, EC=0.2dSm -1) or brackish (SW, EC=3.8dSm -1) water, at various rates.When irrigated with SW, plants grown above a CB yielded 24% higher biomass than control plants (without CB) for all irrigation applications. But, when DW was applied, only a 6% advantage for the CB root-zone was observed. Biomass yield with the CB treatment was only slightly affected by water salinity while without CB, yields significantly decreased when irrigated with SW. The extent of evapotranspiration, plant growth and yield responses to the presence of a CB appeared to be climate dependent. When vapor pressure deficit (VPD) was low (i.e. <1.5. kPa), smaller responses were measured, while more pronounced response was found when VPD increased.
KW - Biomass production
KW - Capillary barrier
KW - Capsicum annuum
KW - Lysimeter
KW - Salinity
KW - Transpiration
KW - Water availability
KW - Yield
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84856969720&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.agwat.2011.12.016
DO - 10.1016/j.agwat.2011.12.016
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84856969720
VL - 105
SP - 13
EP - 20
JO - Agricultural Water Management
JF - Agricultural Water Management
SN - 0378-3774
ER -