Irrigare in funzione del frutto: innovazione possibile?

Despite irrigation being one of the most powerful tools to increase yields and maintaining profitability in fruit production, most farm operations are not following sound irrigation management tools, although there are many available to them, even through the Internet. As societal pressure is on agriculture to reduce its use of the water resource, ecophysiological studies are elucidating the mechanisms underpinning the interplay between leaf, fruit and stem water relations, and how these affect fruit growth. Daily variations in water potentials of these organs are involved (in different manners for different species) in the process of fruit growth but more interestingly, the possibility arises of manipulating the gradients between these potentials that occur during the day, enhancing the fruit's capacity to attract dry matter and water, that are needed to grow, while saving water.