Irrigation management practices in nectarine fruit quality at harvest and after cold storage

This work aimed to ascertain the effects of diff; erent irrigation management practices on yield, fruit quality (nutritional and sensorial) and storage performance of early-maturing nectarine fruits during three consecutive growing seasons (2016/2017–2018/2019) under Mediterranean conditions. Three irrigation treatments were studied: two based on maintaining non-limiting soil water conditions (100 % crop evapotranspiration, ETc) with one (T-Single) or two (T-Double) lines of emitters; and one based on volumetric soil water content (VSWC) threshold values (T-Auto). Despite the greater wetted surface in the T-Double treatment, a mild plant water deficit was observed during the post-harvest period, which did not significantly affect the yield and nectarine fruit quality. The T-Auto irrigation based on VSWC, which received 43 % less water than the T-Single treatment, caused a moderate water deficit, without yield penalty in any of the growing seasons studied and an increase in the water use efficiency of 34 % respect to the T-Single treatment. Furthermore, nectarine fruits from the T-Auto treatment had higher TSS levels (°Brix) at harvest. There were no significant differences in the physico-chemical quality among treatments after 10 days of cold storage (0 °C) plus 5 days of shelf-life (15 °C), showing fruits from the T-Single treatment the highest weight loss values. The use of precise agronomic criteria with soil water sensors is an avant-garde alternative for irrigation scheduling compared to the conventional ETc-based irrigation that improved water use efficiency and contributed to the sustainability of agriculture. The T-Double treatment has not provided any advantage in terms of production and quality compared to the T-Single treatment.This research was supported by Spanish National Plan-FEDER (AGL2013-49047-C02-2R, AGL2016-77282-C03-1R and PID2019-106226RB-C2-1) and Seneca Foundation of Region of Murcia (19903/GERM/15) projects. Conesa M.R. acknowledges the postdoctoral financial support received from the Spanish Juan de la Cierva program (FJCI -2017 -32045