A ten years old orchard of orange 'Baianinha' grafted on lemon 'Cravo' was submitted, to cultural practices of mower in the winter and grating in the summer, with three hand weedings, within crop line, a year. The work was carried out in a Yellow Latosol in the Coastal Table Land ecosystem. The orchard presented phytopathological and production problems, which were attributed to the impediment of the development of roots and storage of water, caused by the cohesive layers, characteristics of these soils. This study was to increase the water availability to the plants by treatments with subsoiling combined with different pruning systems. Physical and chemical parameters of the soil were evaluated and the behavior of the water, in the depths of 0,30; 0,50; 0,70; 0,90; 1,10; 1,30 and 1,50 m, was monitored by neutron probe, in the period from march/1st/96 to march/1st/ 98, with two replicates, in weekly readings. The best outcomes to the water availability were obtained with subsoiling without pruning and with light pruning. The subsoiling treatment with hard pruning presented lower water availability than all other treatments, including control.
soil water; citrus; subsoiling; pruning
