Irrigation improves plant vitality in specific stages of mango tree development according to photosynthetic efficiency

Abstract

The plant fruiting process requires more energy and availability of soil water. Consequently, identifying the appropriate time for additional water supplying for cultivation of mango is an important part of successful crop handling for production of fruit with high quality. Therefore, we studied effects of additional water supplied by irrigation on chlorophyll fluorescence parameters in a field experiment during phenological stages of Mangifera indica L. cv. Ubá. Our results showed that the irrigation at specific periods of plant development improved fluorescence parameters (resulting in high values of the performance index), preventing damage of the photosynthetic apparatus, which positively influenced the supply of photoassimilates to fruit load. Furthermore, the results suggest that the additional water supply by irrigation in rainfed mango trees is recommended for maintaining high photosynthetic performance just during fruit development and fruit maturation.