Partial Root Drying (prd): a New Technique for Growing Plants That Saves Water and Improves the Quality of Fruit

Partial root drying (PRD) is a new irrigation and plants growing technique which improves water use efficiency without significant yield reduction. In the present paper some of the recent data concerning PRD effects on crop plants are presented as well as some of our own results of PRD grown tomato plants. Tomato plants (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) were grown in commercial compost with the root system divided equally between two plastic pots. During the vegetative and generative stage of development, half of the root system of PRD was maintained in a dry state, while the remainder of the root system was irrigated. After c.10 days (when soil water content was reduced to 30%) the treatment was reversed, allowing the previously well-watered side of the root system to dry down while fully irrigating the previously dry side. Therefore, PRD plants received half of the amounts of water used by plants in the control treatment. During the experimental period the analyses of several plant growth and productivity and gas exchange parameters were done. The results obtained showed that as a consequence of PRD treatment the growth of whole plants was reduced with increased crop water use efficiency and sugar content.