Infrared thermography for water management on high tunnel cultivation of strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa Duch)

Abstract

Water management of strawberry cultivation is one of the main problems of production in Colombia, reflected in the loss of fruit or deformation of the same. Plants of two strawberry varieties (Fragaria x ananassa Duch), were irrigated in optimum and slight hydric deficit conditions, in a high tunnel system at the Savannah of Bogotá. Environmental variables (temperature, relative humidity, PAR radiation and vapor pressure deficit) and physiological variables (canopy temperature, substrate moisture content, stomatal conductance) were monitored for five months, in order to validate the hydric status of the crop through use of water stress index – CWSI. It was concluded that the use of thermographic images is a valid tool to detect hydric stress in protected small crops, given its high correlation with other methods and is one of the most complete monitoring methods for water management, since it relates the physiological characteristics of the crop with the climatic variables that affect it.

Keywords

• controlled irrigation
• crop yield
• irrigation efficiency
• water-soil-plant environmen