Effects of Micro-irrigation Modes on the Growth and Water Consumption of Mature Korla Fragrant Pear Trees

The irrigation methods included three kinds of micro-irrigation methods,surface drip irrigation,subsurface drip irrigation,and micro-sprinkler irrigation,and the traditional flood irrigation was used as control.Soil water potential in the root zone was monitored by a tensionmeter and gypsum blocks.The growth indices of fruit tree were recorded at different growth stages.The daily water use,crop coefficients and pan coefficients under different micro-irrigation treatments were estimated by water balance method.The results indicated that the tree water uses under micro-irrigation methods,surface drip irrigation,subsurface drip irrigation,and micro-sprinkler irrigation,decreased by 63.91%,68.4%,and 57.59% respectively as compared with that under flood irrigation,while the shoot growths,reduced slightly,by 5.0%,6.4% and 3.1%.Compared with the flood irrigation,the fruit volumes under the micro-irrigation treatments of different wetted percentage were all bigger,with the largest under surface drip irrigation treatment.Moreover,the fruit quality under micro-irrigation treatments was improved to some extent.