Journal article
Night-time sap flow is parabolically linked to midday water potential for field-grown almond trees
S Fuentes, M Mahadevan, M Bonada, MA Skewes, JW Cox
Irrigation Science | SPRINGER | Published : 2013
Abstract
To quantify night-time (S n) and diurnal (S d) tree water uptake, two sets of sap flow sensors (heat-pulse compensated) were installed per tree in the north-east and south-west sides of the trunk in three trees per treatment. There were two treatments: (1) control, irrigated with 100 % ETc (T100), and (2) deficit, irrigated at 60 % ETc (T60) with daily irrigations at the peak atmospheric demand (December-January). Normalised S n by trees was in the range of 15-25 % throughout the season, compared to normalised S d, for T100 and T60, respectively. Furthermore, S n was parabolically correlated to plant water status from the previous day, measured as midday stem water potential. We also found s..
View full abstractGrants
Funding Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge Almond Board of Australia, Berri, South Australia, for funding the project on "Minimising environmental foot prints from irrigated almonds by using new method and tools" of which the sap flow studies reported here were a part. We would also like to acknowledge Ben Brown and Brett Rosenzweig from the Almond Board of Australia for all their support and assistance for the experiment.