Aspectos ecofisiológicos de la feijoa (Acca sellowiana Berg) bajo condiciones de riego y déficit hídrico

Abstract

The research was carried out at Firavitoba, Boyacá, to determine the growth responses and the plant development under irrigation and drought condition. Feijoa plants, three years old, in good phytosanitary conditions and with similar size were used. Irrigation was applied with drip emitters 4L and 2 h-1 drippers / plant. A complete random block design was employed, with three blocks and 10 plants per plot. Within each block five treatments, corresponding to different irrigation levels 100% (control), 75%, 50%, 25% and 0% were randomly assigned. For each plant, four times, up to day 406 after treatment initiation, the number of new branches, of fully developed leaves and of floral buttons were counted directly. Height was measured from the root collar to the top of the plant; leaf area (cm2) was measured with a portable leaf area meter; the leaf area index (LAI) was calculated by the ratio of leaf area and the soil area occupied by the plant. The data obtained were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) and mean comparison test of Tukey (5%). The software used was SAS Ve 9.2 (Cary, NC). It was determined that irrigation is essential for good physiological development of feijoa, specifically for the vegetative plant growth, specifically under 50 - 70 % irrigation levels.