NOTULAE BOTANICAE HORTI AGROBOTANICI CLUJ-NAPOCA, cilt.51, sa.2, ss.1-19, 2023 (SCI-Expanded)
The most pressing concern of the century is food security, mostly supported by irrigated agriculture. In this respect, studies on water stress have drawn increased attention with a highlighting expectation foreseen via our breeding efforts documented in this study concerning the significant commercial strawberry cultivars ‘Rubygem’, ‘Sabrina’ and ‘Festival’ along with some selected superior bred lines (‘33’, ‘36’, ‘59’, ‘61’ and ‘112’). Plants cultivated in the Spanish-type high tunnel were exposed to both full (IR100) and deficit irrigation (IR50) in the Mediterranean part of Türkiye. Fruit yield as well as certain critical morphological and physiological parameters were examined throughout the active harvest period. This study found that the parameters relating to the vegetative components, as well as the fruit weight and yield, drastically dropped when plants were subjected to deficit irrigation. Therefore, depending on the limited irrigation, as a result of the closure of stomata, it was concluded that the amount of water and stomatal conductance of the plant is associated with a decrease. IR50 was found to have less impact on low-yield genotypes than on high-yield genotypes. Photosynthetic activity and stomatal conductivity were high in the ‘33’ bred line with a high yield. On the other hand, photosynthesis activity and leaf water potential (LWP) values were relatively low in the ‘36’ bred line with low yield. The study proved that variables like photosynthetic activity, stomatal conductance, and LWP could be used as markers for high yield genotype selection.