Effects of the application of water stress-controlled technique on productive, qualitative and nutritional parameters on a late peach cultivar

Peach is one of the most cultivated tree species in the Marche Region. Its cultivation requires high water availability (up to 2000 m3 ha-1), but one of the main challenges of the current agriculture is to face the reduction of this source, also in central Italy. For this reason, a study focused on the introduction of the controlled water stress technique in a high-density commercial peach orchard, located in the Valdaso area (FM) of Marche Region, has been conducted. Irrigation control was carried out through the introduction of tensiometric probes for the measurement of soil water potential. The 3 theses applied are: full irrigation (100% of irrigated restitution with respect to the field water capacity); moderate stress (80% restitution); intense stress (60% restitution). The trial was carried out on a late peach cultivar nectarine 'Tarderina' (Prunus persica L. Batsch) grafted on GF677 rootstock, and the stress was applied during the second phase of fruit growth. The productive, qualitative parameters were collected during 2017 and 2018 harvest years, while nutritional parameters of the fruit were measured only in 2018 harvest season. The tests showed that the irrigation treatment affects the total production of the plant, the fruit size, the firmness of the pulp and the skin overcolor. Water stress clearly affects the nutritional parameters of the fruit. In particular, the 60% refund resulted to promote the Antioxidant capacity and Polyphenolic content. The achieved results are useful to the company for an efficient planning of the irrigation management and for reducing the water use, allowing to save up to 900 m3 ha-1 in the year with the maximum irrigation application (2017), which correspond to about 50 € of saving per hectare.