Summary:

Fruit crops have high water requirements. As sweet water is becoming scarce and expensive resource, development and improvement of irrigation tech-nologies, and introduction of new water saving practices (e.g. mulching to limit evaporation losses) is necessary. Relatively little research has been conducted to determine different re-sponses to unfavorable environmental conditions among various cultivars of fruit crops. Thus, studies have been undertaken at the Research Institute of Pomology and Floriculture to examine the influence of environmental stresses (mainly water deficiency) on plant life (growth, physiology and productivity). These researches are subjected to detailed assessment of genotypic differences in drought tolerance of various crop species. The obtained results are important not only for fruit growers, but also for plant breeders, as the enhanced resistance to stresses has become an important criterion in modern breeding programs. Balanced nutrition is essential for the health of plants. Modern practices allow farmers to apply fertilizers with water through drip irrigation systems (fer-tigation). Together with modern methods of nutrition diagnostics, fertigation has become a suitable tool for optimizing fruit crop fertilization. A new approach into sustainable water and nutrient management strategy should be a combination of modern irrigation and soil water monitoring techniques, elements of soil-plant nutrient diagnostics and breeding focused on production of genotypes with improved wateruse efficiency and drought tolerance.