Agricultural Water Footprint of Southern Highbush Blueberry Produced Commercially with Drip Irrigation and Sprinkler Frost Protection — Oak Academic Publishing
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Agricultural Water Footprint of Southern Highbush Blueberry Produced Commercially with Drip Irrigation and Sprinkler Frost Protection
School of Agronomy, University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
,
Water Research Center for Agriculture and Mining (CRHIAM), Department of Water Resources, Universidad de Concepción, Chillán, Chile
,
School of Agronomy, University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
,
School of Agronomy, University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
,
Water Research Center for Agriculture and Mining (CRHIAM), Department of Water Resources, Universidad de Concepción, Chillán, Chile
,
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Horticultural Crops Production and Genetic Improvement Research Unit, Corvallis, USA
1 School of Agronomy, University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
2 Water Research Center for Agriculture and Mining (CRHIAM), Department of Water Resources, Universidad de Concepción, Chillán, Chile
3 School of Agronomy, University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
4 School of Agronomy, University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
5 Water Research Center for Agriculture and Mining (CRHIAM), Department of Water Resources, Universidad de Concepción, Chillán, Chile
6 U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Horticultural Crops Production and Genetic Improvement Research Unit, Corvallis, USA
A study was conducted from 2010 to 2017 to determine the water footprint for producing blueberries in the Entre Ríos province of Argentina. Three cultivars of southern highbush blueberry (hybrid cross of Vaccinium sp.) were evaluated in the study, including “Star”, “Emerald”, and “Snowchaser”. In each case, the plants were irrigated by drip and protected from frost using overhead sprinklers. Water requirements for irrigation and frost protection varied among the cultivars due to differences in the timing of flowering and fruit development. The annual water footprint for fruit production in each cultivar is expressed in units of cubic meters of water used to produce one ton of fresh fruit and ranged from 212 - 578 m 3 ∙ t − 1 for “Star”, 296 - 985 m 3 ∙ t − 1 for “Emerald”, and 536 - 4066 m 3 ∙ t − 1 for “Snowchaser”. “Snowchaser” flowered earlier than the other cultivars and, therefore, needed more water for frost protection. “Star”, on the other hand, ripened the latest among the cultivars and required little to no water for frost protection. Frost protection required a minimum of 30 m 3 ∙ h − 1 of water per hectare and in addition to drip irrigation was a major component of the water footprint.
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