Water stress daily index in the bean plant irrigated with saline water

Abstract

With the objective of determining the yield of bean cv. Talismã as a function of the daily water stress index, an experiment was conducted in drainage lysimeters under greenhouse conditions at the Universidade Federal de Viçosa, MG. Treatments were arranged in a completely randomized design and consisted of seven leaching fractions corresponding to 40, 31, 25, 23, 16, 14 and 3% of the irrigation water depth. Fresh water (0.07 dS m^-1) was used for the leaching fraction of 3%, and saline water (2.0 dS m^-1) for the other treatments, both with three replications. The cv. Talismã bean showed to be sensitive to salinity, and the highest efficiency of water use, under saline conditions, was obtained for the leaching fraction of 31%. However, the efficiency tended to decrease as the leaching fractions were reduced. The daily water stress index showed to be efficient to determine the relative yield of the bean plant under saline conditions.

Key words:
salinity; Phaseolus vulgaris; leaching; WSDI