Response of orange trees to deficit irrigation strategies in the north of Iran

This work examines the effects of two deficit irrigation strategies, conventional deficit irrigation (DI) and partial root-zone drying (PRD), on mature navel orange trees. The study carried out during two consecutive years (2008 and 2009) in a semi-arid climate on a silty–clay–loam soil in the north of Iran. Both DI and PRD trees were irrigated at two levels, 75 and 50% (DI75, PRD75, DI50 and PRD50) of the full irrigation (FI). In DI, irrigation water was applied to both sides of the tree rows, similar to FI. In PRD, irrigation water was applied alternately to only one side, at each irrigation event. Results showed that DI treatments reduced fruit yield by ～30% compared with FI, but PRD treatments caused no reduction in fruit yield. No negative impact was detected in fruit quality after applying DI and PRD treatments. Shoot growth decreased in all DI and PRD treatments in both years. In DI, stomatal resistance was higher (50%) than in FI, but it was not significantly affected in PRD. The irrigation water use efficiency of PRD trees increased to nearly twice that of FI. According to these two years' results, we recommend PRD as an acceptable deficit irrigation strategy in the region.