Evapotranspiration in young lime trees with automated irrigation

Citrus latifolia is increasingly being cultivated in Mediterranean areas, where the need for precise irrigation implies a sound knowledge of the crop's water requirements, which is carried out by monitoring the tree water status in the plant-soil-atmosphere system. Two year-old lime trees (Citrus latifolia Tan. cv. Bearss) were cultivated in 45 L weighing pot-lysimeters filled with a clay-loam soil and equipped with soil water sensors for recording the real-time soil water status. Irrigation, drainage, pot weight, and agro-meteorological variables were also recorded in real-time. Plant water relations - stem (psi stem) and leaf (psi leaf) water potentials, and leaf gas exchange - were periodically measured throughout the experiment. The automated irrigation protocol based on the volumetric soil water content was set to prevent tree water stress (with mean seasonal values of psi stem above -0.8 MPa and 7 mu mol m(-2) s(-1) and 80 mmol m(-2) s(-1), for net phtosynthesis and stomatal conductance, respectively). From the soil water pot balance, the computed fortnightly ET mean values throughout the growing season varied from 0.25 to 2.56 L plant(-1) day(-1) in winter and summer months, respectively. Maximum ET values occurred in July when evaporative demand was highest and lime fruits were in their most active growing phase. For day length, lime tree biomass changes were negligible, and the pot tree weight variations served for ET water balance validation (r(2)=0.92***). The contribution of this work is that it establishes a scalable weighing lysimeter prototype for determining the ET of lime trees grown in Mediterranean semi-arid conditions, using real-time soil water balance monitoring managed by an irrigation automation protocol. This approach could be replicated for precise ET measurements in other crops.