Abstract

This work assessed the effects of the sustained (during the whole berry growth) and regulated (at post-veraison) practices of deficit irrigation on water relations, yield components and berry quality in a commercial vineyard of ‘Crimson Seedless’ table grapes. For this, five irrigation treatments were established during a complete irrigation season (from April to October): (i) Control (CTL) irrigated to 110% crop evapotranspiration (ETc); (ii) Regulated Deficit Irrigation (RDI) irrigated at 50% of CTL during the non-critical period of post-veraison; (iii) Sustained Deficit Irrigation (SDI), irrigated at 50% of CTL throughout the entire berry growing season; (iv) Partial Root-Zone Drying (PRD), irrigated similar to RDI but alternating the irrigation applied on the dry side every 10–14 days; (v) Sustained Partial Root-Zone Drying (SPRD), irrigated as SDI but alternating the irrigation on the dry side every 10–14 days. RDI and PRD received 24% and 28% less water than CTL, respectively. These reductions were higher in SDI and SPRD (65% and 53%, respectively). Total yield was not affected by any DI strategy. Only significantly lower productive values were observed in the weight and height of the berries as compared to CTL. However, the color parameters evaluated increased in all the DI treatments, being slightly higher in SDI and SPRD as compared with RDI and PRD. In addition, total soluble solids (TSS) were significantly higher in SDI, compared to other irrigated counterparts. Our findings showed that the application of water deficit during the entire period of berry growth using SDI and SPRD can be considered for irrigation scheduling in ‘Crimson Seedless’ table grapes when the aim is to solve the trouble of insufficient reddish color of the berries.