Strawberry water requirements in Middle Lithuania

Restoration of Lithuanian independence, land reform, radically changed farming structure and strawberry growing potential has conditioned an increase of modern strawberry plantation. Irrigation is a rather important precondition for the commercial cultivation of fruit and berries in Lithuania. The new farm structure requires new, mainly small-scale irrigation systems. Strawberry water consumption and the soil water dynamics during strawberry growing period stated performing pilot research and additional yield which had been got because of the irrigation influence allows to measure optimal irrigation regime of the strawberry based on research. The aim of the work was to investigate dynamics of strawberry evapotranspiration in the Middle Lithuania and in the course of experiments, with respect to development peculiarities and productivity, to determine optimal irrigation regime for the strawberry grown in loamy soils. In the summary is presented strawberry evapotranspiration results maintaining optimal soil moisture conditions with irrigation; analysis of reference evapotranspiration methods; determination of their interaction degree and evaluation of the possibilities to introduce reference evapotranspiration models in calculation of the evapotranspiration of strawberries; quantitative evaluation of the influence of meteorological factors on the amount of the water consumed by strawberries and analysis of strawberry evapotranspiration calculation methods; evaluation of soil moisture dynamics in strawberry field during vegetation and determination of optimal irrigation regime in loamy soils; evaluated adaptation of SWAP model for simulation of soil moisture dynamics in strawberry field, determined the influence of irrigation on strawberry yield and others indicators as well as economical reasoning of strawberry irrigation.Žemės ūkio akademijaVytauto Didžiojo universiteta