Regulated deficit irrigation in potted Dianthus plants: Effects of severe and moderate water stress on growth and physiological responses

The purpose of this study was to analyze the physiological and morphological response of carnation plants to different levels of irrigation and to evaluate regulated deficit irrigation as a possible technique for saving water through the application of controlled drought stress. Carnations, Dianthus caryophyllus L. cultivar, were pot-grown in an unheated greenhouse and submitted to two experiments. In the first experiment, the plants were exposed to three irrigation treatments: (control); 70% of the control (moderate deficit irrigation, MDI) and 35% of the control (severe deficit irrigation, SDI). In the second experiment, the plants were submitted to a control treatment, deficit irrigation (DI, 50% of the control) and regulated deficit irrigation (RDI). After 15 weeks, MDI plants showed a slightly reduced total dry weight, plant height and leaf area, while SDI had clearly reduced all the plant size parameters. RDI plants had similar leaf area and total dry weight to the control treatment during the blooming phase. MDI did not affect the number of flowers and no great differences in the colour parameters were observed. RDI plants had higher flower dry weight, while plant quality was affected by the SDI (lower number of shoots and flowers, lower relative chlorophyll content). Leaf osmotic potential decreased with deficit irrigation, but more markedly in SDI, which induced higher values of leaf pressure. Stomatal conductance (g_s) decreased in drought conditions more than the photosynthetic rate (P_n). Osmotic adjustment of 0.3 MPa accompanied by decreases in elasticity in response to drought resulted in turgor less at lower leaf water potentials and prevented turgor loss during drought periods.