Innovative Soil Management and Micro-Climate Modulation for Saving Water in Peach Orchards

Microclimatic and soil management studies emphasize that roofing above the canopy or soil mulching contributes to reduce water losses from horticultural cropping systems and, at the same time, to increase water use efficiency. The aim of this 2-year on-farm study, carried out on a late ripening peach (cv. California) orchard, was to investigate the combined effect of water supply (full or deficit irrigation, DI), incoming light (hail or shading net), and soil management (tilling or mulching) on: microclimate; fruit growth; yield; irrigation water use productivity (WP_I); and soil water stress coefficient (Ks). Shading hail net reduced air temperature (-1°C), wind speed (-57%), solar radiation (-32%), while increased relative air humidity (+9.5%). Compared to the control treatment (hail net coverage, soil tillage, and full irrigation), the innovative management (DI + shading hail net + mulching) reduced seasonal volumes of irrigation water (-25%) and increased both final yield (+36%) and WP_I (+53%). Saving water resources without losing yield is an achievable goal by peach orchards growing under the Mediterranean climate if the DI agro-technique is adopted conjointly with shading hail net and soil mulching.