Agricultural Water Management 161 (2015) 102113

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Agricultural Water Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/agwat

Matric potential-based irrigation management of eld-grown

strawberry: Effects on yield and water use efciency
Guillaume Ltourneau , J. Caron, L. Anderson, J. Cormier
Department of Soil and Agrifood Engineering, Laval University, Pavillon de lEnvirotron, 2480 boul. Hochelaga, Qubec G1 V 0A6, Canada

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 3 February 2015
Received in revised form 9 July 2015
Accepted 12 July 2015
Available online 10 August 2015
Keywords:
Strawberry
Irrigation management
Water use efciency
Soil matric potential
Tensiometer

a b s t r a c t
Effective and adapted criteria for irrigation scheduling are required to improve yield and water use efciency (WUE) and reduce the environmental impacts associated with water and nutrients losses by runoff
and leaching. In this study, eld-scale experiments were conducted at four commercial strawberry production sites with contrasting soil and climatic conditions. Within each site, the inuence of different
soil matric potential-based irrigation thresholds (IT) on yield and WUE was evaluated. Matric potentialbased irrigation management was also compared with common irrigation practices used by producers in
each sites respective areas. At Site 1 (silty clay loam; humid continental (Dfb) climate), an IT of 15 kPa
improved yields by 6.2% without any additional use of water relative to common irrigation practices.
At Site 2, with similar soil and climatic conditions, the irrigation treatments did not affect yield and the
matric potential-based management decreased WUE relative to common practices. However, the results
suggested that maintaining the soil matric potential lower than 9 kPa could induce stressing conditions
for the plants. At Site 3 (sandy loam; Mediterranean (Cs) climate), the best yield and WUE were obtained
with an IT of 8 kPa and suggested that WUE could be further improved by implementing high-frequency
irrigation. At Site 4 (clay loam; Mediterranean (Cs) climate), results suggested that an IT between 10
and 15 kPa could optimize yield and WUE, and matric potential-based irrigation considerably reduced
leaching under the root zone relative to common practices. Considering the results from all sites, an IT
of 10 kPa appears to be adequate as a starting point for further optimizing irrigation under most eld
conditions.
2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND
license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction
Irrigation management is of primary importance for the profitability and sustainability of eld strawberry production because
it affects yield, water use efciency and diffuse pollution of ground
and surface water. These issues are of great importance in some
areas, such as coastal California, Spain and Australia, where water
availability is a growing concern. In recent decades, the increased
implementation of more efcient water management practices,
mainly subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) and the use of plastic mulch,
has greatly improved WUE in commercial strawberry production.
However, questions remain regarding irrigation management criteria that could improve WUE and reduce the environmental risks
of SDI. Currently, the most common criteria are based on climatic
water balance (evapotranspiration), plant physiological properties,
soil water status measurements or a combination of these factors.

Corresponding author. Fax: +1 4186563515.

E-mail address: guillaume.letourneau.1@ulaval.ca (G. Ltourneau).

Many studies have shown that evapotranspiration (ET)-based

irrigation management could be efcient for strawberry production (Hanson and Bendixon, 2004; Krger et al., 1999; Yuan, 2004).
However, this method is also criticized for its inability to account for
rapid changes in climatic conditions and because it generally does
not account for differences in the water requirements of different
strawberry cultivars (Gin Bordonaba and Terry, 2010; Klamkowski
and Treder, 2008; Krger et al., 1999). The availability of locally
determined crop coefcients that account for the wetting patterns
resulting from the combined effects of SDI system conguration
and soil type can also be problematic. Additionally, management
based only on ET cannot be used to assess whether the applied
irrigation water is lost beneath the root zone due to percolation
(Simonne et al., 2012).
Numerous studies have proven that physiological measurements on plants could be used to measure water stress and its effect
on plant performance. However, plant-based irrigation scheduling is still limited by many theoretical and practical difculties,
most of which are discussed in a comprehensive review by Jones
(2004). In strawberry production, leaf temperature measurements
with infra-red thermometers were identied as a potential tool

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2015.07.005
0378-3774/ 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.
0/).

G. Ltourneau et al. / Agricultural Water Management 161 (2015) 102113

for irrigation management because they allow for the detection of

severe stresses that affect yield and biomass production (Penuelas

et al., 1992). Photosynthesis, stomatal conductance, and leaf water
potential measurements have also been successfully used to detect
hydric stress and to understand and differentiate stress adaptation mechanisms among strawberry cultivars. Such measurements
have shown great potential to be used for breeding droughtresistant cultivars (Blanke and Cooke, 2004; Klamkowski and
Treder, 2006, 2008; Sav et al., 1993). Canopy spectral reectance
or transmittance measurements also present potential for irrigation management because they are correlated with strawberry fruit
yield. However, a clear interpretation of their effects still requires
topography, soil water content and climatic information (Hoppula
and Salo, 2007). Despite the relevance of understanding the physiological parameters tackled in the studies cited above, they do
not currently allow for the denition of a criterion for irrigation
scheduling or for assessing the appropriate volume of water that
should be applied (Jones, 2004).
Soil water status measurement methods, whether based on
water content or soil matric potential, have been well documented
(Topp and Ferr, 2002; Young and Sisson, 2002) and have frequently been used for irrigation scheduling. In this study, soil matric
potential () measurements were favored over soil water content measurements because of their ease of use in various eld
conditions (no calibration required for soil types or salinity levels). The soil matric potential is also directly related to the soils
hydraulic conductivity, which is linked to the soils capacity to
supply water at the rate required by plants (Rekika et al., 2014).
Because potential gradients are the leading force responsible for
water movement in soils, measurements can also be used to infer
the direction and magnitude of soil water uxes. This information
can be used to prevent leaching under the root zone (Krger et al.,
1999). -based irrigation management has been successfully used
to improve the yields of many agricultural crops and to evaluate
the impacts of irrigation practices on water and fertilizer leaching (Pelletier et al., 2013; Priard et al., 2012; Shock and Wang,
2011).
Many studies have evaluated the impacts of -based irrigation management on strawberry yield and WUE. However, their
results differ with regard to which value should be used as
an irrigation threshold (IT). Similarly, little information is generally provided regarding the optimal duration of each irrigation
event. From a eld experiment in a sandy loam presenting a signicant proportion of coarse particles ( > 2 mm), Bergeron (2010)
noted an increase in WUE that did not affect yield when the IT
was 18 kPa. For strawberry grown in a sandy loam under a high
tunnel, greater yields were obtained when an IT of 10 kPa was
used than when a drier regime of 70 kPa was used (Guimer

et al., 1995; Penuelas

et al., 1992). Under similar soil and production conditions, signicant yield and fruit quality decreases
were observed for ITs of 30, 50 and 70 kPa relative to an IT
of 10 kPa, and the highest WUE was obtained when using an IT
of 50 kPa. In the same study, the yields from all of the treatments
were 150250% greater than the average yields from growers in
the area (Serrano et al., 1992). Based on eld experiments, a similar trend was observed in sand with an optimal yield at an IT of
15 kPa and a better WUE at 30 kPa (Hoppula and Salo, 2007). In
addition, irrigation regimes were shown to affect fruit quality during greenhouse production. Decit irrigation was shown to increase
the sugar/acid ratios, antioxidant capacity and total phenolic contents of strawberries (Gin Bordonaba and Terry, 2010; Terry et al.,
2007).
Nonetheless, not all studies support the previously mentioned
benets of -based irrigation management. After conducting
eld experiments during three production seasons, Krger et al.
(1999) concluded that ET-based management showed a greater

103

potential for improving yield and WUE, mainly due to economical

and practical reasons. However, only one -based irrigation treatment was tested, and irrigation scheduling was based on bi-weekly
measurements. Problems with regards to probes locations in the
eld were also reported. In a bell pepper production experiment, it
was shown that the soil matric potential presented large spatial and
temporal variability and that several tensiometers were necessary
for obtaining representative values for a given eld. (Hendrickx and
Wierenga, 1990; Hendrickx et al., 1994).
Some of the previously mentioned studies were conducted
in greenhouses or tunnels and others in elds. Additionally, the
tensiometers installation depths, matric potential measurement
frequencies and treatment application procedures varied between
studies. Considering this, the optimal IT for given soil and climatic
conditions is not obvious. The aim of this study is to determine
optimal matric potential based IT for eld strawberry production
with regards to yield and WUE for a variety of soil type and climatic
conditions.
2. Material and methods
2.1. Site descriptions
From 2010 to 2013, eld-scale strawberry production experiments were conducted at four commercial sites that were chosen
to cover a wide range of soil properties and climatic conditions.
The site locations, soil types, climatic conditions and cultural practices are provided in Table 1. Generally, the experimental sites can
be classied into two main groups. Group A includes Sites 1 and
2, which are located near Quebec City (Qc, Can) in an area with a
humid continental (Dfb) climate where the growing season is short
and generally rainy. The historical mean water budget (Precipitation ETc) of the area is positive during the growing season, but the
use of polyethylene mulches make supplemental irrigation necessary, especially in July and August. At these sites, irrigation water
is provided by private reservoirs that are lled by snowmelt and
rainwater. Thus, the irrigation water is free and usually available in
sufcient volumes throughout the growing season. The day neutral
Seascape cultivar was planted in mid-May and harvested from
mid-July to early October, with a production peak in September.
Group A sites were located near each other and their soils were
very similar. However, Site 1 was a former pasture where strawberries were grown for the rst time, and Site 2 had been cultivated in
rotation with strawberries, sweet potatoes and oats for many years.
Thus, the soil from Site 1 was expected to have hydraulic properties
and nutrient element contents that were more favorable for plant
growth than Site 2.
Group B includes Sites 3 and 4, which are located near Oxnard
and Watsonville in the southern and northern parts of California
(USA), respectively. Both areas have Mediterranean or dry subtropical (Cs) climates. At Site 3, a commercial short-day cultivar was
planted in October and produced from February to June. At Site 4,
locally developed commercial day neutral cultivars were planted
in November, were slowly established during the winter, and produced berries from April to mid-October. Both of these sites were
near the Pacic Ocean and were characterized by foggy mornings
and clear afternoons. Furthermore, most of the precipitation in this
region occurred between December and mid-March. Consequently,
most of the production period was rain free.
2.2. Experimental setup
At each site, a typical management zone (i.e. a zone that was irrigated independently from the rest of the farm) was selected as the
experimental area. That zone was divided in 37 blocs where two

104

G. Ltourneau et al. / Agricultural Water Management 161 (2015) 102113

Table 1
General descriptions of the experimental sites.
Site

Location

Growing
season

Reference
period

Soil type

Climate

Rainfalla

(lat,long)

Cultural Practices

Irrigation system
specications
lateral : 1.6 cm
lateral depth: 3 cm
emitter spacing: 20 cm
emitter ow rate: 0.5 ph
lateral : 1.6 cm
lateral depth: 3 cm
emitter spacing: 20 cm
emitter ow rate: 0.5 lph
lateral : 1.6 cm
lateral depth: 5 cm
emitter spacing: 20 cm
emitter ow rate: 0.34 lph
lateral : 1.6 cm
lateral depth: soil surface
emitter spacing: 20 cm
emitter ow rate: 0.5 lph

(mm)

Quebec city,
Qc, CAN
(46.90 ,70.94 )

MayOctober
2011

AugustOctober
2011

Silty clay loam

humid
continental
(Dfb)

280

2 plant rows per

bed; 1 drip line per
bed

Quebec city,
Qc, CAN
(46.92 ,70.96 )

MayOctober
2011

AugustOctober
2011

Clay loam

humid
continental
(Dfb)

280

2 plant rows per

bed; 1 drip line per
bed

October
Oxnard, CA,
2011June
USA
(34.15 ,119.15 ) 2012

FebruaryJune
2012

Sandy loam

Mediterranean
(Cs)

97

November
Watsonville,
2012October
CA, USA
(36.89 ,122.67 ) 2013

AprilOctober
2013

Clay loam

Mediterranean
(Cs)

24

4 plant rows per

bed; 3 drip lines
per bed; sprinklers
in early stages
2 plant rows per
bed; 2 drip lines
per bed; sprinklers
in early stages

Data for the reference period only.

Table 2
Plot size, experimental design, yield measurement specicities and applied treatments on the experimental sites.
Site

Total site area

Bed length/width

Beds per plot

Design

Harvest
measurement
frequency

Harvest
measurement
area

Plants per
sub-plot

Applied
treatments

(ha)

(m)

1.4

142/0.9

RCBD 6
replicates

Bi-weekly

Total plot area

NA

1.8

160/0.9

RCBD 7
replicates

Bi-weekly

Total plot area

NA

0.7

130/1.22

RCBD 3
replicates

Weekly

Sub-plots only

24

0.28

32/0.8

RCBD 4
replicates

Weekly

Sub-plots only

20

IT10: 10 kPa
IT18: 18 kPa
Control:
variable IT
IT10: 10 kPa
IT18: 18 kPa
Control:
variable IT
IT8: 8 kPa
IT11: 11 kPa
IT13: 13 kPa
IT10: 10 kPa
IT17: 17 kPa
IT25: 25 kPa
Control:
variable IT

to three IT treatments based on measurements were assigned in

a randomized complete bloc design (Table 2). At Sites 1, 2 and 4,
a control treatment consisting of the common irrigation management techniques used by local producers was also included in the
experimental setup. In all cases, the supply line(s) for the drip irrigation laterals was(were) modied to allow for the independent
management of each treatment. A typical setup from this study
is schematically represented in Fig. 1. More site-specic details
regarding the experimental setup are provided in Table 2.

2.3. Irrigation system specications

At all sites, the types of drip laterals used (diameter, emitter
spacing, ow rate) and their congurations (nb of laterals per bed,
depth of installation) were determined by the producer and were
the same as those used on the rest of their farms. Site-specic
details are provided in Table 1. For Group A sites, only drip irrigation
was used for all growing stages. For Group B sites, overhead sprinkler irrigation was used during plant establishment. During that
period, experimental plots were irrigated simultaneously according to the producers usual practices. Treatment application began
after the plant establishment stage, when only SDI was used to
provide water.

Fig. 1. Typical setup of the drip irrigation system at the experimental sites (Site 1
in this example).Thicker lines represent principal and secondary conduits and thin
lines represent drip laterals.

2.4. Soil matric potential measurements

The soil matric potential was measured similarly at all the
experimental sites. For all treatments, a monitoring station was

G. Ltourneau et al. / Agricultural Water Management 161 (2015) 102113

105

installed at mid-length in one (Group B) or two (Group A) replicates.

Each monitoring station consisted of two tensiometers buried
at two depths. The tensiometers were connected to a wireless
transmitter (Hortau, St-Romuald, QC, CAN) to allow for real-time
monitoring of . A shallow probe was installed at a depth of 15 cm,
where most strawberry roots are found (Bergeron, 2010). Horizontally, this shallow probe was located within a radius of 510 cm
from a drip emitter. The aim was to place the probe in the active
root zone and on the outer edge of the wetted bulb from the emitter.
This position was used because it allowed monitoring the effects of
root uptake and water application on . A deep probe was installed
at a depth of 30 cm, or 3 cm above any impermeable rock layer
located at a shallower depth. Rock layers were present at three stations at Site 1 and two stations at Site 2 (out of 6 stations in both
cases). Horizontally, the deep probe was located directly under a
drip emitter to monitor the matric potential under the root zone
(>90% of the roots are usually located within the top 30 cm), which
is the area most likely affected by excessive irrigation.
2.5. Spatial variability of the matric potential
At Site 3, two manual reading tensiometers were installed at
a depth of 15 cm in all of the experimental plots in early May.
Thus, 6 probes were randomly distributed across the experimental
area for each treatment. For each treatment, 6 measurement runs
were performed from May 15 to June 15 to compare the values
obtained from the manual tensiometers with those obtained from
the shallow probes of the monitoring stations. For each treatment
and measurement run, Students t-test with a 0.05 signicance level
was performed to test the null hypothesis that the average value
from the manual probes did not differ from the value measured at
the monitoring station.
2.6. Application of the irrigation treatments
The application of the experimental treatment was the same
at all the experimental sites. For the IT treatments, irrigation was
simultaneously triggered in all replicates of a treatment when a
predetermined IT was reached by the shallow probe(s) from the
monitoring station(s) associated with the treatment. When two
monitoring stations were associated with a single treatment (Group
A sites), irrigation was triggered when the average of the two shallow probes reached the IT. The ITs were chosen as a function of
soil type or, in the case of Sites 1 and 2, previous experiments
conducted on similar soils (Bergeron, 2010) and are presented in
Table 2. The Control treatments consisted of the common irrigation management used by local producers. Irrigation of the Control
plots was controlled by each sites producer without interference
from the experimenters, but Control plots were still equipped with
monitoring stations. For Group A sites, the common irrigation management method consisted of daily irrigation planning based on
basic weather reports and irrigation logs from previous days. For
Group B sites, the common practice was to apply approximately
100% of the historical average ETc via two or three weekly irrigation
events on predened days.
2.7. Adjustment of irrigation duration
For the IT treatments, the duration of each irrigation event
was initially the same as that used in the Control treatments. For
the Control treatments, the irrigation duration remained constant
throughout the growing season. For the IT treatments, the irrigation duration was adjusted as follows. Shortly after planting, while
the root uptake in the deeper parts of the bed was null, the
value at which the risk of rapid gravitational leaching under the bed
was considered minimal was estimated using data from the deep

Fig. 2. Example of changes in the matric potential under the root zone (30cm depth)
following an irrigation event. Irrigation initiation occurred at t = 0 h. A is the gravitational ow period, B is the transient ow period and C is the capillary redistribution
period.

probes of the monitoring stations. A typical example of changes

in at a depth of 30 cm following an early season irrigation is
presented in Fig. 2. It shows that at a depth of 30 cm sharply
increases as the water content approaches saturation within minutes (Group A) or hours (Group B) after an inltration (in this case
irrigation) event. Then, if rapid gravitational leaching occurs,
rapidly (within 3 to 4 h) returns to a lower value. Next, a transition period between gravitational and capillary water ows usually
occurs. Subsequently, after 1648 h (depending on the site), water
movements or changes in are much slower and mainly result
from capillary water redistribution. For the remainder of this study,
at the beginning of the capillary redistribution phase (Fig. 2) is
referred to as the bed capacity. This concept is similar to that
of eld capacity but more adapted to drip-irrigated raised beds,
where the wetted bulb has a nite size (similarly to inltration
from an inltrometer (Reynolds and Elrick, 1990)) and is not necessarily in hydraulic contact with the subsoil and water table. Drip
irrigated raised beds generally reach their own equilibrium at
values that are much higher than those expected in a standard at
soil (33 kPa). In this study, it was assumed that the risk of gravitational leaching was minimal at values below the bed capacity.
Using a trial and error process that generally required 12 weeks
depending on the irrigation frequency, the irrigation duration was
adjusted so that the bed capacity was not exceeded following irrigation unless leaching was desired to control the salinity in the root
zone. Monitoring of the data following irrigation was continued
throughout the season, and the irrigation duration was adjusted if
necessary. Because the bed capacities observed at all of the sites varied between 2 and 3 kPa, a target post-irrigation value of 3 kPa
was used for all of the experimental sites considered in this study.
2.8. Cultural operations
All other cultural operations (pest, disease and weed management, ower and runner pruning and general maintenance) were
executed similarly in all plots by the producers. Fertilizers were
applied to the crops through injection into the drip irrigation system. Their type and quantity were controlled by the producer and
were identical in all treatments. At Sites 1 and 2, the producer
applied fertilizers to all plots simultaneously according to his usual
fertilization schedule, regardless of the matric potential measured
in the plots. At Sites 3 and 4, the Control treatments were fertilized
regardless of the matric potential. However, for the IT treatments,

15.8 0.5 a
15.3 0.7 a
15.3 0.7 a
14.2 0.8 a
14.4 0.7 a
14.4 0.7 a
30.7 0.3 a
31.1 1.0 a
30.6 0.6 a
20.9 0.8 a
21.0 0.6 a
20.1 0.8 a
21.2 0.4 a

(g per fruit)
(kgfruit m3 water )

36.3
84.4
79.8
32.9
41.5
69.9
17.7
16.9
17.0
8.8
8.1
10.2
6.6
2.7
5.8
8.7
2.9
3.8
4.0
2.2
2.7
3.2
2.2
2.8
3.8
3.2

(d)
(min)

41
44
60
40
42
60
58
76
77
43
49
53
75b
19
9
6
20
15
14
60
49
42
88
71
52
62
135.2 29
13
13
135.2 37
29
16
277
257
248
247
412
392
367
298
542

(mm)
(kg ha1 )
(kPa)

10687.9 869.6 a
10518.3 510.9 a
9981.1 1151.6 b
12305.9 1623.4 a
11492.9 2087.2 a
12127.9 1168.8 a
48989.55473.4 a
41898.0 6359.7 b
41874.3 4943.6 b
36352.3 4971.2 a
29799.3 4791.4 b
30452.9 4909.0 b
35780.2 5194.8 a
4

7.3
6.1
10
5.0
6.8
6.1
5.5
7.9
8.1
7.2
10.1
14.7
5.5

(kPa)

13.3 7.5
14.9 4.9
24.7 6.8
12.9 8.6
18.0 7.5
13.5 10.3
8.1 2.2
12.5 5.8
15.2 8.5
10.1 1.1
18.5 3.8
26.4 3.9
7.9 3.1

6.4
7.9
7.2
4.5
5.0
3.3
4.7
7.5
10
6.6
9.8
15.4
3.8

WUE
Irrig. freq
Avg irrig. duration
Nb of irrig

Applied irrig.
water
(mm)
ETc
Marketable yielda
Avg 30 cm

(kPa)

Conventional loose soil samples and undisturbed core samples were collected at depths of 15 and 30 cm from the growing
beds during the rst weeks following planting. Conventional samples were used to measure the soil texture using the hydrometer

IT10
IT18
Control
IT10
IT18
Control
IT8
IT11
IT13
IT10
IT17
IT25
Control

2.12. Soil physical properties

Avg 15 cm

At all sites, a water totalizer was installed on the supply line for
the drip laterals associated with each treatment and the applied
irrigation water volume was measured weekly during the reference period. WUE was calculated by dividing the marketable yields
by the volume of applied water. An irrigation log was used to
keep track of the frequency and duration of the irrigation events
and the measured at a depth of 15 cm at irrigation initiation
was used to calculate the average ITs achieved for the reference
period. The reference ET (ETo ) was calculated using climatic data
from an on-site or nearby weather station and the FAO modied
PennmanMontheith equation and converted to crop ET (ETc ) by
using appropriate crop coefcients according to canopy coverage
(Grattan et al., 1998) and/or the number of days after planting
(Hanson and Bendixon, 2004).

Avg achieved IT

2.11. Irrigation parameters

Intended IT
(treatment)
(kPa)

At the Group A sites, marketable yields from the total plot area
were collected on a bi-weekly basis and four fruit subsamples per
plot were used to measure the average fruit size and fruit soluble solid content (Brix index) using a refractometer. At the Group
B sites, the same information was gathered from 2 weekly harvested sub-plots per each experimental plot. At the latter sites, 25
plants per sub-plot were selected to obtain weekly measurements
of crown diameter and canopy coverage area. More information on
the conguration of sub-plots is provided in Table 2. The plots at the
Group B sites were normally harvested several hours before commercial fruit harvest. On some occasions, coordination problems
between the harvest crew and the research team occurred and the
fruits were collected without sorting according to the experimental treatments. Hence, the cumulative marketable yield at these
sites represented only a fraction of the total yield for the reference
period.

Site

2.10. Marketable yield, fruit quality and plant growth parameters

Table 3
Average thresholds, marketable yield, fruit quality and water use efciency results from the different experimental sites, where is the soil matric potential and WUE is the water use efciency.

For evident reasons, yield and fruit quality data were available
only during the harvest period while water use, soil matric potential
and climatic data were available for the entire growing season. In
order to compare the inuence of the experimental treatments on
all variables of interest in this study, site-specic reference periods
were established depending on data availability (Table 1). Consequently, all of the results presented in the remainder of this study
regarding yield, fruit quality, applied water volumes, irrigation frequency and duration, achieved ITs and average values (Table 3)
only consider data obtained during that period. For Group A sites,
the reference period was from August 1st to October 1st, 2011. At
these sites, the harvest period began on July 10th, but the reference
period was shortened because data regarding the applied water
volumes were unavailable before August because of a water totalizer malfunction. At Sites 3 and 4, the reference periods were from
February 15th, 2012 to June 15th, 2012 and from April 1st, 2013 to
October 15th, 2013 respectively.

Fruit size

2.9. Reference period for measurements and data analysis

Note: The treatments with the same letter do not differ at the 0.05 signicance level.
a
For clarity, the cumulative marketable yield during the reference period for each site is presented here, but the statistical analyses were conducted on individual harvests throughout the season with a repeated measure
mixed model. At all Sites, the interaction term between harvest dates and yield was not signicant at the 0.05 signicance level.
b
From personal communication with the producer, this is an approximation since the producer did not keep track of irrigation durations in his irrigation log.

fertilizers were only applied when the IT was reached. Thus, the
timing of their application sometimes differed from 1 to 5 days
among the treatments.

8.8 0.4 a
8.8 0.2 a
8.8 0.2 a
8.2 0.3 a
8.4 0.3 a
8.3 0.2 a
8.1 0.1 a
7.9 0.3 a
8.2 0.2 a
10.3 0.4 a
10.2 0.4 a
10.4 0.3 a
10.3 0.7 a

G. Ltourneau et al. / Agricultural Water Management 161 (2015) 102113

Sugar content
(Brix index)
(%)

106

G. Ltourneau et al. / Agricultural Water Management 161 (2015) 102113

107

method (Gee and Or, 2002a) [Sites 1 and 2] or the laser light scattering method (Gee and Or, 2002b) [Sites 3 and 4]. In addition, the
soil electrical conductivity was determined using the 1:1 saturated
soil paste extract method (Rhoades, 1982). Core samples were used
to measure the saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ksat ) using the
constant head method (Reynolds et al., 2002). Desorption water
retention curves were obtained from core samples with suction
tables and pressure plate extractors (Dane and Hopmans, 2002a;
Romano et al., 2002) for Sites 1 and 2 and with pressure cells (Dane
and Hopmans, 2002b) for Sites 3 and 4. The soil bulk density was
determined by oven drying and weighing the core samples. For
the Group A sites, samples were collected from 27 locations across
a regularly spaced grid to assess the spatial variability of the soil
properties by using basic (experimental variogram only) geostatistical analysis (Yates and Warrick, 2002). For the Group B, samples
were collected at 23 locations per plot for a total of 12 and 15
samples at Sites 3 and 4 respectively.
2.13. Soil salinity measurements
At all sites, weekly measurements of the electrical conductivity
and pH of the soil solution were performed on samples extracted
using suction lysimeters to insure that they did not exceed the recommended values for strawberry production (Barroso and Alvarez,
1997). For the same purpose, soil samples were collected monthly
at a depth of 15 cm in all plots to measure the soil electrical conductivity by using the 1:1 saturated paste extraction method (Rhoades,
1982).

Fig. 3. Relative time spent within the different matric potential ranges during the
reference period of the experiment at Site 1.

is less than 6 or 8 kPa. Consequently, in this soil decreases

rapidly above values of 6 to 8 kPa. This allows little intervention
time for initiating irrigation before the threshold is exceeded. For
IT18, fertigation events conducted by the grower before the IT was
reached explain why the achieved IT was higher than intended.
3.2. Site 1: Yield and fruit quality

2.14. Statistical analysis

To statistically analyze the yield, fruit size and soluble solid
content, an analysis of variance test was performed using a linear mixed-effects repeated measures model with the nlme package
in R (Pinheiro et al., 2013). The main effect contrasts were determined using the multcomp package (Hothorn et al., 2008), and a
0.05 signicance level was used in all tests. For the Group B sites,
the yield data from the rst harvest were discarded from the statistical analyses because not all of the plants began producing fruit
simultaneously and because early variability results from uncontrollable differences in plant size and vigor that were present at the
moment of planting or occurred due to the adequacy of the planting
technique (crown depth, root damage).
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Site 1: Soil matric potential
Abundant and frequent precipitations, soil water retention
properties and fertigation events conducted by the producer made
the achievement of the intended IT difcult at Site 1. Hence, the
applied treatments did not result in major differences in the soil
matric potential during the reference period (Fig. 3). For IT10 and
IT18, the average achieved ITs were 13.3 and 14.9 kPa rather
than the intended 10 and 18 kPa, respectively. The average
values at both measurement depths were also similar between the
IT treatments. IT10 was in fact maintained in slightly dryer conditions than IT18 at a 15 cm depth, but it was maintained slightly
wetter at a 30 cm depth (Table 3). For the Control treatment, the
(unintended) achieved IT was 24.7 kPa and the average at a
depth of 15 cm was 2.73.9 kPa lower than for IT10 and IT18, respectively (Table 3). The failure to obtain the intended IT for IT10 can be
explained by the water retention curve of this soil (Fig. 4). Similarly
to coarse sand, the water retention curve presents a sharp decrease
in water content in the wet part of the curve (0 to 5 kPa). However, similar to clay, the water content decreases very slowly when

Even if not perfectly achieved, the application of the irrigation

treatments resulted in a signicant increase in the marketable yield
of 6.2% for IT10 and IT18 relative to Control (p = 0.01354). However,
IT10 and IT18 did not signicantly differ from one another (Table 3).
The statistical analysis also showed that the interaction term
between harvest date and yield was not signicant (p = 0.3029).
Hence the yield increase achieved with both IT treatments relative to Control remained constant during the reference period. No
signicant difference in fruit quality or size was observed between
any of the treatments (Table 3). Therefore, the yield improvements
obtained with the IT treatments were due to differences in the
number of fruits produced by the plants.
The results regarding the inuence of the treatments on and on
yield can be used to estimate the optimal IT range for this Site. Fig. 3
shows differences between IT10 and IT18 with regards to the relative time spent with at a 15 cm depth in the [0,3], and [6, 9]
kPa ranges. It is particularly clear that IT18 was maintained above

Fig. 4. Average water retention curve from the four experimental sites.

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G. Ltourneau et al. / Agricultural Water Management 161 (2015) 102113

3 kPa for longer durations than IT10. However, the same yields
were achieved with both IT treatments. This suggests that maintaining the bed under wet conditions (>3 kPa) do not improve fruit
production. Fig. 3 also shows that in all treatments was between
9 and 15 kPa for similar durations; and that the relative time in
the [15, 20] kPa range was 163% more important for Control than
for the IT treatments. Hence, the hydric stress that reduced yield for
Control potentially occurred when was lower than 15 kPa. If only
yields were to be considered, 15 kPa would thus be an adequate
IT at this site.
3.3. Site 1: Water use efciency
Regarding water application, the IT18 and Control treatments
required similar volumes of water, whereas the IT10 treatment
resulted in a 136% increase in water application relative to the other
two treatments (Table 3). The IT10, IT18 and Control plots were irrigated 19, 9 and 6 times during the reference period, and the average
irrigation durations were 40, 48 and 60 min, respectively. Hence,
even when not perfectly achieved, the intended ITs and the irrigation duration adjustment procedure had notable impacts on the
applied water volume and on the irrigation frequency and duration.
The WUE was better in the IT18 and Control treatments despite signicant total yield decrease associated with the latest. By denition,
WUE is related to yield and applied water volumes only. In this case,
it does not account for any increased application efciency in IT18
relative to the Control. This increase in efciency occurred because
monitoring the matric potential under the root zone most likely
prevented excessive leaching. This is supported by the fact that
at a depth of 30 cm was more frequently within the [0, 3] kPa
range (above bed capacity) in Control than in IT18 (Fig. 3). This indicates that gravitational leaching was most likely more frequent in
Control than in IT18. IT18 was only irrigated on 3 more occasions
than Control, and the same total amount of water was applied in
both treatments, which demonstrates the critical issue of irrigation timing. The additional water applied to IT10 relative to IT18
did not affect yield but substantially reduced the WUE. Despite
being classied as a silty clay loam, the soil from Site 1 had a an
important proportion of rock fragments and a low bulk density.
In agreement with the previously discussed water retention properties this suggests that macropores represent an important part
of this soils poral network, resulting in a drainage capacity much
better than expected for a silty clay loam. In these conditions, it is
likely that the excess water did not generate anoxic conditions that
could be detrimental to the plants. In summary, the results from
this site suggest that an IT of approximately 15 kPa could optimize
strawberry yield and WUE (Fig. 5). This result is consistent with the
optimal values reported for a sandy soil with a high organic matter
content (Hoppula and Salo, 2007) and with the values reported by
Bergeron (2010) for a nearby eld.

Fig. 5. Effect of the irrigation threshold on the within site relative yield (upper plot)
and relative water use efciency (lower plot) for all experimental sites.

different, additional experiments are needed to conrm this nding. Again, no differences in fruit sugar content or size were
observed among any of the treatments (Table 3).
Observations subsequently made on Sites 3 and 4 could explain
the absence of signicant differences at Site 2. At Sites 3 and 4,
it was observed that the yields rapidly decreased when a certain
IT was exceeded (Fig. 5). For lower ITs, the effects of a decrease
in IT on yield were less evident. It is possible that at Site 2, all
treatments exceeded the optimal IT and were within or near the
plateau part of the yield response curve to IT. This hypothesis
is supported by unsaturated hydraulic conductivity measurements
made at a nearby site during the following season, which suggested
that the water transfer rate in the soil matrix might become limiting between 5 and 8 kPa on days with high evapotranspiration

3.4. Site 2: Soil matric potential, yield and fruit quality

At Site 2, the intended and achieved irrigation thresholds agreed
well. Nonetheless, the average
values at both measurement
depths were very similar for all treatments (Table 3), and the differences between the treatments with respect to the relative time
spent in different ranges were minimal (Fig. 6). Statistical analysis of the yield data indicated no signicant difference between the
treatments, but orthogonalcontrasts revealed that the 6.6% yield
increased achieved with IT10 relative to IT18 was nearly signicant
(p = 0.0561). Fig. 6 shows that IT10 spent half as much time as IT18
in the [9, 12] kPa range. In addition, was maintained lower
than 15 kPa over similar durations in both treatments. This result
suggests that a yield-affecting hydric stress could occur between
9 and 12 kPa. However, since the yields were not signicantly

Fig. 6. Relative time spent within different matric potential ranges during the reference period of the experiment at Site 2.

G. Ltourneau et al. / Agricultural Water Management 161 (2015) 102113

109

Table 4
Basic physical properties of the soils from the experimental sites, where bulk is the soil bulk density, and Ksat is the hydraulic conductivity.
Site
1
2
3
4

Avg
CV (%)
Avg
CV (%)
Avg
CV (%)
Avg
CV (%)

Sand content
(%)

Silt content
(%)

Clay content
(%)

Particle > 2 mm content

(%)

Organic matter content

(%)

Soil depth
(cm)

bulk
(g cm3 )

Ksat 15 cm depth
(cm h1 )

Ksat 30 cm depth
(cm h1 )

18.1
41.3
28.4
23.2
60.0
3.0
37.6
7.4

48.4
12.0
44.8
9.9
27.9
7.0
32.5
4.6

33.5
15.7
26.8
12.7
12.1
5.1
29.9
6.3

32.8
37.9
NA
NA
<1
NA
<1
NA

5.7
16.8
2.8
24.2
1.2
9.6
2.4
11.8

2030

1.04
9.8
1.23
8.4
1.53
4.0
1.32
11.8

158.8
69.7
115.1
61.1
1.3
79.7
44.7
188.2

67.0
114.2
55.8
148.8
13.1
140.9
NA
NA

3040
> 100
> 100

demands. However, additional experiments with higher irrigation

thresholds are needed to conrm this nding.
3.5. Site 2: Water use efciency
Relative to Control, IT10 and IT18 led to increases in applied
water volume of 128% and 78% respectively. This greatly reduced
their WUE (Table 3). Tensiometer-based irrigation has also been
reported to increase the volume of applied water (from 47 to 267%)
relative to the climatic water balance management in a similar
experiment when using an IT of 20 kPa (Krger et al., 1999). The
IT10, IT18 and Control plots were irrigated 20, 15 and 14 times during the reference period, and the average irrigation durations were
40, 42 and 60 min, respectively. The reduction of irrigation durations for both IT treatments relative to Control most likely reduced
the fraction of the applied water that was leached under the root
zone. Three phenomena could explain the poor WUE of tensionbased irrigation in this case. First, the water application method
was likely inadequate for the soil type. Although the soil at Site 2
was classied as a silty clay loam, it presented saturated hydraulic
conductivity values (Table 4) and water retention properties (Fig. 4)
that were similar to those of coarse sand. Consequently, the downward movement of water was very fast, with minimal lateral water
movement. Thus, most of the applied water was rapidly leached
to the soil below the root zone and became unavailable to plants,
which would explain the limited effects of irrigation.
Second, it is possible that the abundant precipitation during
the reference period, combined with the presence of a watermovement-restricting layer under the monitored depth of 30 cm,
allowed the soil to maintain a sufcient water reserve for the plants.
During the reference period, the strawberry plants most likely had
a root system that reached 30 cm and could benet from such a
reserve. This hypothesis is supported by the observation that the
matric potential at a depth of 30 cm was maintained near bed capacity during most of August and September. Because of the plastic
mulches over the beds, rainwater does not signicantly affect the
matric potential at 15 cm and the poor capillary rise capacity of the
soil from Site 2 does not favor recharge from the bottom soil layers. It is possible that although sufcient water for root uptake was
available at greater depths, the matric potential at 15 cm continued
to decrease, which triggered irrigation.
Finally, the short scale spatial variability of soil properties could
explain the absence of a yield response to irrigation regimes. Even
if the variographic analysis showed no spatial structure at the
investigated measurement scale at the site (data not shown), the
coefcients of variation of the soil properties (Table 4), especially
the sand and organic matter contents, were important. This most
likely inuenced the response of the matric potential to irrigation
and root uptake. For the IT treatments, irrigation was triggered
based on the average value obtained from two monitoring stations. However, at the time of irrigation initiation, substantial
discrepancies were often observed between measurements from
the two stations for both IT10 (Fig. 7) and IT18 (not shown). None

Fig. 7. Example of the differences between the averaged matric potential used to
trigger irrigation and the values from the two monitoring stations for IT10 at Site 2
during the month of August.

of the soil properties measured near the monitoring stations justied such a difference in hydraulic behavior. However, it is possible
that coarse particles (> 2 mm), such as schist fragments, were
located near some of the tensiometers. In such cases, rapid drainage
would be favored as the water retention capacity decreased, which
would require more frequent irrigation. Variographic analysis of
the proportion of coarse particles at a nearby site (Letourneau 2015,
unpublished) indicated a signicant nugget effect and no spatial
structure at any scale. Hence, random effects of coarse particles
potentially altered the effects of the applied treatments.
3.6. Site 3: Spatial variability of the matric potential
Table 5 compares the mean values from the manual tensiometers that were spread across the experimental site with the values
obtained from the monitoring station. It also presents the results
from the Student t-tests that were performed to verify if they were
signicantly different. Out of 18 data sets, the measurements with
both methods were signicantly different on only two occasions.
In more than 50% of the cases, the differences between the matric
potentials were less than 1 kPa. In addition, these comparisons were
performed by the end of the season when the effects of variability
were likely highest because plant development and root uptake
would have been affected by the differences in soil water status for
7 months. At the scale of this experiment (i.e. for an area of 0.25 ha
per treatment), tension measurements from a single monitoring
station in one replicate were representative of observations in all 3
replicates. In this case, the soil from this site was very uniform, as
shown by the low coefcients of variation of most of the soil properties (Table 4). More experiments would be required to determine
the number of monitoring stations required for larger plots or for
less uniform soils.

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G. Ltourneau et al. / Agricultural Water Management 161 (2015) 102113

Table 5
Results from the Student t-test procedure used to compare the matric potential observations from the monitoring station and the mean value from the manual tensiometers,
where is the matric potential at 15 cm.
Measurement run

IT8
Monitoring station

1
2
3
4
5
6

IT11
Avg manual Degrees
probes
of freedom

(kPa)

(kPa)

5.2
7.6
5.9
7.0
4.5
5.0

4.3
7.1
5.4
2.9
3.6
4.6

2.6
1.8
3.0
1.3
1.6
1.0

5
4
5
4
5
4

IT13

p Value
of t-test

Monitoring
station
(kPa)

(kPa)

0.4429
0.5921
0.7172
0.0021*
0.2099
0.3936

7.8
12.6
6.9
8.8
7.9
5.7

6.2
9.6
6.3
6.9
5.2
4.0

Avg
manual
probes

0.8
4.5
1.4
1.3
2.4
1.8

Degrees
of freedom

p Value
of t-test

Monitoring
station
(kPa)

(kPa)

3
3
3
2
3
4

0.0289*
0.2690
0.4632
0.1169
0.1041
0.1013

6.6
9.7
4.6
7.0
9.3
10.7

6.2
10.7
7.7
6.4
11.9
10.7

Avg
manual
probes

4.0
4.9
3.5
3.5
4.5
7.4

Degrees
of freedom

p Value
of t-test

3
3
3
4
3
4

0.8453
0.7222
0.1790
0.7013
0.3368
0.995

differences were attributable to a difference in the fruit number. As for Site 1, the interaction term between harvest date and
yield was not signicant (p = 0.6473). Hence the difference in yield
between IT8 and the other treatments remained constant during
the reference period. These results are consistent with previous
studies. Optimal yield was obtained with an IT of 10 kPa for production under high-tunnel in a similar soil (Guimer et al., 1995).
Regular EC measurements from soil saturated paste extracts and
suction lysimeter samples showed that soil salinity remained at
similar levels for all treatments and did not reach values that could
have affected plant growth. For all treatments, SAR was less than
2.0, which is much lower than the critical value (6.0) for berry
production. This result differed according to the position within
the growing bed, which was expected in a drip irrigation context
(Hanson and Bendixon, 2004) but not between treatments. Knowing that the same fertilization method was applied to all treatments
and that the salinity most likely did not affect the yields, we can condently assert that the yield differences between the treatments
mostly resulted from water availability.
Fig. 8. Relative time spent within different matric potential ranges during the reference period of the experiment at Site 3.

3.9. Site 3: Water use efciency

3.7. Site 3: Soil matric potential
Except for the end of the production season, when ETo reached
values of up to 6 mmd1 and the ITs were occasionally exceeded for
all treatments, the agreement between the intended and achieved
ITs was good (Table 3). As shown in Fig. 8, IT8 was maintained
at a above 9 kPa at both measurement depths during 95% of
the reference period. Respectively, IT11 and IT13 remained above
9 kPa for 72 and 66% of the reference period. Both IT11 and IT13
spent equivalent amounts of time between 9 and 12 kPa at both
depths. As shown by the average values at both depths (Table 3)
and in Fig. 8, the most noticeable difference between IT11 and IT13
was that the latter was maintained in drier conditions at a depth of
30 cm. A greater difference in IT between IT11 and IT13 would likely
be required to induce notable differences regarding the amount of
time spent in different ranges. Overall, it was not very practical
to achieve a separation of only 2 kPa without using an automated
irrigation system.
3.8. Site 3: Yield and fruit quality
With respect to the marketable yield, orthogonal contrasts indicated that IT8 resulted in a signicant (p = 0.0434) 17% marketable
yield increase relative to IT11 and IT13 (Table 3). This difference in
yield roughly corresponded to the amount of time spent within the
[9, 12] kPa range at both depths for IT11 and IT13 (19%), which
suggested that irreversible yield-affecting stress principally occurs
within this range. No differences between the treatments regarding the fruit sugar content and size were observed. Thus, yield

The application of water to IT11 and IT13 agreed well with

the calculated ETc for the reference period (257 mm), while IT8
required the application of 7.4% more water than ETc (Table 3).
The WUE of IT8 was better than the WUEs in the other treatments
because the yield increase was greater. Regarding the irrigation frequency and duration, irrigation was required on average every 2.2,
2.7 and 3.2 days for durations of 58, 76 and 77 min for IT8, IT11
and IT13, respectively. Such a difference in yield with an irrigation frequency difference of less than one day shows that daily
measurements are not sufcient for optimizing strawberry irrigation management, regardless of the criterion used (climatic-,
soil- or plant-based measurements). This nding is consistent with
reports from Jones (2004) that real-time or hourly measurements
are required for optimal irrigation scheduling. Fig. 8 shows that IT8
was maintained between 0 and 3 kPa at a depth of 30 cm for 16%
of the reference period, which is 4 times more than IT11 and IT13.
In this case, more leaching likely occurred under the root zone.
This nding suggests that the method used to adjust the duration
of irrigation events could require some adjustments for soils with
such low hydraulic conductivities (Table 4). This soils poor water
transfer capacity mainly occurred because 80% of its sand particles
were smaller than 0.25 mm (classied as ne to very ne sand),
which increased the proportion of ow restricting micropores. Due
to slow water inltration, it is difcult to adjust irrigation durations
to obtain target matric potentials at both measurement depths
simultaneously. In Summary, the experiment at Site 4 showed that
triggering irrigation at 8 kPa provided optimal yields and WUE.
They also suggest that high-frequency and short-duration irrigation

G. Ltourneau et al. / Agricultural Water Management 161 (2015) 102113

Fig. 9. Relative time spent within different matric potential ranges during the reference period of the experiment at Site 4.

could minimize leaching under the root zone in these conditions,

thus further improve WUE.
3.10. Site 4: Special considerations
Except for the Ksat measurements in which variability is frequently elevated because of sampling and measurement errors
(Reynolds et al., 2002), the soil properties from Site 4 had low variation coefcients. Thus, the soil was considered as uniform. Because
the experimental area was nearly 3 times smaller than that at Site
4, it was assumed that measurements from a single monitoring station per treatment would represent the values across the entire
area.
Similar to many other elds in the area, the experimental site
was affected by cyclamen mites that affected the general plant
vigor by feeding on the plant material and altered ower pollination and reduced the fruit size. One replicate of the IT17 treatment
was particularly affected and removed from the statistical analysis. However, all of the other experimental plots were equally
affected. On average, approximatively 10,000 kg/ha of berries were
misshaped or smaller than industry standards and classied as
unmarketable, with no signicant differences between the treatments. In addition, canopy coverage was reduced relatively to
normal values in the area, which reduced the ETc. No signicant
difference in canopy coverage was observed between any of the
treatments. When calculated with Kc values derived from canopy
coverage as described by Grattan et al. (1998), the ETc value for
the reference period was 392 mm. However, when calculated using
historical monthly adjusted Kc values, the ETc value was 467 mm.
3.11. Site 4: Soil matric potential, yield and fruit quality
At Site 4, the achieved and intended thresholds were in good
agreement; and average values at both depths conrmed that IT
treatment application was successful (Table 3). This was facilitated
by the low rainfall (24 mm) and regular evapotranspirative demand
during the reference period. As intended, decreasing the IT from
10 to 25 kPa resulted in notable differences in the time spent
within the different ranges (Fig. 9). Managed by the producer
without a pre-determined IT, the Control treatment was maintained
under the wettest conditions. Consequently, orthogonal contrasts
showed that IT10 and Control led to a signicant (p = 0.0111) 19.7%
yield increase relative to IT17 and IT25 (Table 3). No signicant
differences were observed regarding fruit sugar content and size.

111

Again, the interaction term between harvest date and yield was not
signicant (p = 0.7180). The effects of treatments on yield (Table 3)
combined with their impacts on the soil water status (Fig. 9) can
be used to deduce the optimal range for fruit production. First,
under wet conditions, large differences between IT10 and Control
regarding the amount of time spent in the [0,3], [3,6] and
[6,9] kPa ranges did not affect yield. The yields in Control were
not increased relative to that of IT10 by spending a greater proportion of the reference period at a above 6 kPa. Second, at a
depth of 30 cm in Control was maintained above the bed capacity
(3 kPa) for as much as 33% of the reference period, which implies
that an important fraction of the applied water was leached under
the root zone. This excessive water application did not have any
adverse effects on fruit production and is consistent with physiologically oriented observations indicating that strawberry plants
can maintain their photosynthetic activity while ooded by partially closing their stomata (Blanke and Cooke, 2004). Third, all IT
treatments spent similar amounts of time within the [9,12] kPa
range without any negative effects on yield for IT10. Finally, considering both measurement depths, the relative time below 15 kPa
was nearly 4 times greater in IT25 than in IT17 without any effect
on yield. Together, these observations suggest that [6,12] kPa is
the optimal range in this soil for strawberry yields, and that most
of the yield-affecting stress occurs in the range of [12,15] kPa. In
this case, the time spent in the [15, 25] kPa range did not affect
the yield. However, more experiments would be required to determine if drier conditions would induce a gradual or stepwise yield
decrease.
3.12. Site 4: Water use efciency
With regard to water use, IT10, IT17, IT25 and Control plots were
irrigated 88, 71, 52 and 62 times during the reference period, and
the average irrigation durations were 43, 49, 53 and approximatively 75 min, respectively (Table 3). The applied irrigation water
depths were 105, 94 and 76% of ETc for IT10, IT17 and IT25, respectively. For Control, 138% of ETc was applied; however, irrigation
was used in the control to compensate for the historic ETc, which,
was expected to be higher, as discussed above (Table 3). In fact, by
applying 532 mm of irrigation water during the reference period,
the grower applied 116% of the expected value (467 mm) based
on historic monthly means. Considering the water application efciency and possible salt leaching needs, this amount of water
would most likely have been appropriate for the same reference
period during an average growing season (i.e. for healthy strawberry plants). However, in this case, the additional water applied
to Control resulted in a decreased WUE relative to IT10. The WUE
decreased from IT10 to IT17, mainly because of a yield reduction,
and increased between IT17 and IT25 mainly due to a reduction in
the amount of water applied. Even in a water scarcity situation, it
is not likely that growers would sacrice yield to improve WUE,
which was the case for IT25. From a practical perspective, it would
be interesting to conduct further experiments to identify a point
between IT10 and IT17 that would allow for a compromise between
yield and WUE.
These results show the adaptability of -based irrigation management. Without any special considerations during treatment
application, the water applied to IT10 and IT17 was very similar
to the calculated ETc (Table 3). By contrast, adjusting the amount
of water applied to Control in order to compensate the actual water
requirement of insect affected plants (which was not an objective
in this study), would have required monthly or bi-monthly canopy
coverage measurements. These measurements are common for
research purposes but are rarely performed in a production context.
In this experiment, the ETc was lower than anticipated due to mites.
However, these observations suggest that matric potential-based

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G. Ltourneau et al. / Agricultural Water Management 161 (2015) 102113

irrigation could automatically (i.e. without any additional measurements) account for most uncontrolled (pest, disease, weather) or
planned (varieties, plant density) factors that could affect plants
because it is directly related to root uptake. In addition, on a volumetric basic, the water applied to IT10 and IT17 was very similar
to the ETc estimations but resulted in major differences in yield.
Again, this stresses the importance of irrigation timing. In this case,
proper timing allowed IT10 to remain above the presumed critical
value of 12 kPa, leading to better yield relative to IT17. In summary, ETc calculations have been shown here and in many other
experiments to serve as a very interesting tool for determining the
amounts of water required by plants. However, to optimize irrigation management, ETc should be used in combination with another
criterion available over a short time interval. At this site, real-time
monitoring of the matric potential was shown to be an efcient
criterion.

4. Conclusion
Experiments conducted at the Group A sites indicated that
matric potential-based irrigation management could positively
affect the marketable yield and WUE, even for short production
periods with abundant precipitation (Fig. 5). These experiments
also allowed to identify potential limitations of that type of management. These limitations were (1) the difculty of achieving
intended thresholds in production conditions, (2) the effect of the
unstructured spatial variability of soil properties and (3) management difculties associated with inadequate wetting patterns
from the SDI irrigation system. Additional experiments designed to
understand and differentiate the effects of these limitations would
be required to optimize matric potential-based management under
these conditions. The results from Sites 1 and 2 may be useful for
improving irrigation management practices on farms located in
the same areas as the experimental sites. Unfortunately, because
of the specic properties (schist fragments) of the soils at these
sites, it is not appropriate to use information regarding the yield
responses to IT that were obtained from these experiments to infer
optimal thresholds for soils with similar textures because conventional textural classication only includes particles smaller than
2 mm. Knowledge of more complex properties, such as water retention and hydraulic conductivity, or conducting similar experiments
on more typical soils from different soil types would be required to
apply these results to other sites.
At the Group B sites, which have uniform soils and nearly no
precipitation, the effects of IT management on yield and WUE were
much more pronounced (Fig. 5). Initiating irrigation at a proper
matric potential allowed to improve the yield and WUE, respectively, by as much as 20 and 33% relative to conventional irrigation
practices in this area. In general, the yields from the Group B sites
were not negatively affected by high matric potentials (wet conditions), for which aeration could be limiting. However, the yield
decreased sharply for matric potentials of less than 8 to 12 kPa,
depending on the site. In dryer conditions, the yield response to IT
appeared to reach a plateau for IT values between 12 and 25 kPa
depending on the site. This suggests that the soil matric potential
range for which a compromise between optimal yield and WUE is
possible would be between 10 and 15 kPa, depending on the
site. At Site 4, leaching under the root zone was also considerably reduced relatively to conventional practices by monitoring
the matric potential at a depth of 30 cm following irrigation. Of
course, additional experiments could result in further optimization
of irrigation practices at all of these sites. It would be interesting to
verify if high-frequency and short-duration irrigations could reduce
leaching while maintaining high level yields. The soil from Site 3
is a typical ne textured sandy loam, and the soil from Site 4 is a

typical smectitic clay loam. Both soils are well represented in their
respective areas. Thus, the results could be used as a guideline to
improve irrigation practices in similar soils. The results from sites
with contrasting properties, varieties and cultural practices were
similar under temperate (Group A) and warm (Group B) climatic
conditions. It is thus likely that an IT of 10 kPa would provide
good results in most type of soils and under most climatic conditions. It would at least represent a good starting point for further
optimization of irrigation management of eld grown strawberries.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to express their gratitude to Ferme
Onsime Pouliot for providing two experimental sites and for
their technical and nancial contributions to the research project.
This project was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering
Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Hortau, and Ferme Onsime
Pouliot.
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