Response of an autumn-winter green bean greenhouse crop to a mild water deficit during crop flowering in a Mediterranean region.

摘要

Greenhouse growers of autumn-winter green bean crops on the Almeria coast use to reduce the soil water availability during crop flowering in order to increase the fruit number and, consequently, the crop productivity, but without measuring the soil or the plant water status. This reduced irrigation during crop flowering (RI), compared to full irrigation treatment (FI), was studied in a representative greenhouse during the 2001/02 cropping season. The total irrigation water supplied was similar for both irrigation treatments. The autumn-winter green bean crop with RI presented progressively lower soil matric potential (SMP) values than the FI treatment from the vegetative phase to the first fruit setting, reaching minimum SMP values of around -60 kPa, these SMP values are slightly lower than those recommended to prevent water stress in green bean crops grown in medium-fine textured soils. Hereafter, SMP values for the RI treatment maintained similar or slightly higher than for the FI. Overall, the autumn-winter green bean crop with lower soil water availability during crop flowering produced less aerial biomass (the vegetative one) than the FI treatment but did not affect the fruit production.