Summary:

The aim of the study was to evaluate the efficiency of irrigation of highbush blueberry using different types of irrigation schemes. The experiment was conducted in 2009 - 2012 on 5 cultivars: ‘Bluecrop', ‘Chandler', 'Duke', ‘Nelson', ‘Spartan'. The irrigation treatments were as follows: (i) control (without irrigation), (ii) one drip line per row of plants (100%, reference water amount determined according to tensiometer readings), (iii) two drip lines per row of plants (125% of reference water amount), (iv) drip irrigation - two drip lines per row of plants (200% of reference water amount). In 2009 and 2010 the highest total length of one-year-old shoots was observed in the plants from control combination. In 2011 the number and total length of shoots in the all irrigation treatments was higher compared to the non-irrigated one. This was confirmed in 2012. The highest plant vigor was observed in case of ‘Bluecrop' and ‘Nelson' cultivars, whereas the lowest for ‘Chandler'. Yielding of blueberry was very varied. Only in 2012 the total yield obtained from irrigated plants was higher compared to the control ones. Among the cultivar tested, the highest yield was recorded for ‘Chandler', while the lowest one for ‘Spartan'. Fruits of ‘Chandler' cultivar were the biggest.