Sustainable irrigation management of ornamental cordyline fruticosa "Red Edge" plants with saline water

Abstract

The aim of this work was to analyze the influence of the salinity of the nutrient solution on the transpiration and growth of Cordyline fruticosa var. "Red Edge" plants. A specific irrigation management model was calibrated with the experimental data. An experiment was performed with four treatments. These treatments consisted of the application of four nutrient solutions with different electrical conductivity (ECw) levels ranging from 1.5 dSm-1 (control treatment) to 4.5 dSm-1. The results showed that day-time transpiration decreases when salt concentration in the nutrient solution increases. The transpiration of the plant in the control treatment was modelled by applying a combination method while the effect of the salinity of the nutrient solution was modelled by deriving a saline stress coefficient from the experimental data. The results showed that significant reductions in plant transpiration were observed for increasing values of ECw. The crop development and yield were also affected by the increasing salinity of the nutrient solution. A relationship between the ECw and the relative crop yield was derived.