Effect of irrigation on yield and fruit quality of rabbiteye blueberry growing on mineral soils in New Zealand

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to determine the effect of irrigation on fruit yield and quality, and to provide recommendations for the appropriate level of irrigation for 11-year-old Vaccinium ashei Reade var. ‘Maru’ (a Rabbiteye blueberry cultivar), growing on Horotiu silt loam at Oakberry Orchard near Hamilton, New Zealand. Water was applied twice daily by drip irrigation. The treatments were no irrigation, normal irrigation (one-drip line per row), and additional irrigation (two-drip lines per row). During the observation period (November 2013 to April 2014), rainfall was below normal, particularly during fruit ripening and harvest in February and March when drought conditions created differences in soil moisture vertically and horizontally among the three treatments.