The influence of hail net on the water balance and leaf pigment content of apple orchards
Introduction
Apples are an extremely important part of both the world's fruit production and consumption because approximately 80 million tons of apples are produced in the world each year. It is also a significant industry at European level a production of approximately 12 million tons/year (USDA, 2019). It accounts for 60–65 % of all fruit production in Hungary, making it one of the most important areas of the fruit growing sector with an average of 550–600 thousand tons/year, so making it the 5th largest production area in Europe. Due to the continental climate, frost damage in autumn, spring and winter and the development of atmospheric drought in summer causes significant problems in apple growing areas (Csihon et al., 2015; Dremák et al., 2016). Nowadays, active protection methods against hail damage and various extreme weather conditions are available. One of them could be the use of hail nets. In 30–70 % of the most significant apple growing areas in Europe hail net is already used (Szabó, 2016), as no other protection equipment has proven to be so effective in controlling ice damage (Lakatos et al., 2011). The hail net has an effect on the physiology of the tree, its shading effect in warm, sunny areas has a positive effect on the growth of fruit trees (Giaccone et al., 2012), reduces the appearance of the effects of sunburn on trees and animal pests (Middleton and McWaters, 2002; Gindaba and Wand, 2005; Iglesias and Alegre, 2006). It has an effect on the microclimatic factors especially temperature, wind speed and relative humidity, which changes will have an effect on the amount of water transpired by the individuals (Bosco et al., 2015; Mupambi et al., 2018) and the temperature of foliage (Iglesias and Alegre, 2006). The use of hail net provides a favorable environment for the synthesis of photosynthetic enzymes, thereby for the photosynthesis to occur (Mditshwa et al., 2019) and the chlorophyll content to increase (Manja and Aoun, 2019). The increased photosynthetic activity and water use efficiency of the canopy increase carbohydrate production and eventually contribute to better yield quality (Sivakumar and Jifon, 2018). Since the long term effect of the hail net on the canopy plays significant role in yield production, this research focuses on the effect of hail net on the canopy. The main aim of the present research is to evaluate and integrate the effects of hail net on the water supply and some of the parameters of photosynthesis of apple orchard where drought and heat sensitive Golden Reinders and Early Gold varieties are grown on sandy soil with very poor soil conditions. The effects of hail net on several water supply related parameters and pigment content of canopy were analyzed, and furthermore the relationship among the examined parameters were explored.
Section snippets
Material and methods
The research was carried out at the Horticultural Unit of Pallag, University of Debrecen, Hungary. More than 250 fruit varieties are grown in this area, including many apple varieties. Field surveys were conducted an intensively cultivated 10 years old Early Gold and Golden Reinders apple orchard equipped with micro-irrigation and hail net in a parcel of 0.68 ha, where all trees were on M9 rootstocks (Fig. 1), contributing to the homogeneous conditions from water supply and plant point of view.
Climate impact of hail net
The micro-climatological effects of the hail net were analyzed first. The hail net induced alteration of air temperature (°C) and relative humidity (%) were analyzed. Under the hail net 26.58 ± 2.19 °C was measured, which is 2.91 % lower than the temperature of 27.37 ± 2.20 °C measured in the orchard without hail net cover. However, the difference was not significant (p = 0.150), it can have important biological effect on plant physiology, because in hot summer days small decrease in
Conclusion
The results of this study are unprecedented evidence for the effects of hail net used in an apple orchard upon the water balance and pigment content of heat and drought sensitive apple varieties. Based on the results, the hail net has a favourable effect on the water balance of Early Gold and Golden Reinders apple orchards through microclimatic conditions, partially offsetting the negative effects caused by summer heat and drought stress. The effect of hail net on the microclimate resulting
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Andrea Szabó: Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing, Software, Data curation. János Tamás: Writing - original draft. Attila Nagy: Writing - review & editing, Methodology, Conceptualization, Supervision.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors report no declarations of interest.
Acknowledgements
The research is funded by TKP2020-IKA-04 project. Project no. TKP2020-IKA-04 has been implemented with the support provided from the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund of Hungary, financed under the 2020-4.1.1-TKP2020 funding scheme.
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