Water Consumption and Drip-Irrigation Regimes for Fruit and Berry Seedlings in the Central Non-Chernozem Region

A key issue in the production of fruit and berry seedlings is the improvement of cultivation technologies, including the use of irrigation. In recent years, global agricultural practices have increasingly favored environmentally safe irrigation methods, such as drip irrigation. The objective of this research is to develop scientifically-based irrigation regimes for drip-irrigated seedlings of fruit (plum, cherry, pear, apple) and berry (raspberry) crops under the conditions of the Central Region of the Non-Chernozem zone in Russia. The research was conducted from 2011 to 2022. Field experiments on the cultivation of 1-, 2-, and 3-year-old seedlings were conducted with three replications, with the following pattern: control (no irrigation) and maintaining soil moisture in the root zone within the ranges of 60 to 80%, 70 to 90%, and 80 to 100% of field capacity. The developed drip-irrigation regimes for fruit and berry seedlings shorten the interval between irrigations to an average of 2 to 9 days, with low irrigation rates (averaging 35.3–49.5 m³/ha), depending on the preirrigation threshold (60, 70, and 80% of field capacity) and moisture conditions during the growing season. These regimes maintain soil moisture in the root zone within the specified ranges. Under drip irrigation, the main contribution to total water consumption comes from precipitation (64%) and irrigation (24%). Overall water consumption increases with rising cumulative daily temperatures. The highest water consumption intensity occurs in the early stages of the growing season, while by its end, this rate decreases.