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 ...
Fruit production plays an important role in both national agriculture and economy. In order to keep the present supply markets, which means the actual production level, we have to ensure the high quality of fruit offered to customers. In our climate soil drought is one of the crucial factor significantly controlling the quantity and quality of the fruit crop. Therefore irrigation of orchards and small fruit plantations has become an indispensable element of fruit production. The de-velopment of irrigation itself is controlled by the shortages of water. It is important to optimize the ways of using our moderate water resources in the process of orchard development. It should be related to not only modern and economical irrigation systems but also with the introduction of rational criteria of irrigation to orchard farms. However, new technologies cannot find their way to predominantly small farms and the lack of reliable information makes the whole situations even worse. The information needed should be collected through surveys conducted during national conferences and fairs. The aim of the investigations was to estimate the area of irrigated orchard and plantations, collecting the information about the technological ideas and practical usage of irrigation criteria as well as the ...
