Effect of wetted soil area on trunk growth, yield, and fruit quality of drip-irrigated sour cherry trees

The effect of wetted soil area on trunk growth, yield, and fruit quality in drip-irrigated Kütahya sour cherry (Prunus cerasus L.) trees grafted on mahaleb (Prunus mahaleb L.) seedlings was investigated over 3 seasons in a semiarid zone of Central Anatolia, Turkey. Percentages of wetted soil area ranging from 8.8% to 35.6% were obtained by applying 7 treatments consisting of 1 or 2 lateral drip lines per tree row and various dripper numbers per tree. Adequate irrigation was applied to all treatments based on daily evapotranspiration values estimated by the FAO-modified Penman- Monteith equation. The highest yield was generally obtained at percentages of wetted soil area higher than 30%; this was provided by placing 2 lateral lines (1 m apart) per tree row with continual drippers spaced between 0.50 m and 1.00 m. The percentage of wetted soil area did not significantly affect trunk growth and fruit weight in addition to fruit attributes such as redness index of fruit skin color, fruit juice content, soluble solids content, titratable acidity, or pH, in general.