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Production Practices and Quality Assessment of Food Crops. Vol. 1

Production Practices and Quality Assessment of Food Crops. Vol. 1

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54 M. Génard <strong>and</strong> F. Lescourret<br />

Figure 1. Evolution during the growing season <strong>of</strong> peach carbon <strong>and</strong> water components simulated by<br />

SWAF as a function <strong>of</strong> crop load <strong>and</strong> water stress. Water potential was chosen to vary within the<br />

ranges –10 to –2 bar <strong>and</strong> –12 to –4 for normally watered (NW) <strong>and</strong> water stressed (WS) trees,<br />

respectively. Sugar content in the phloem was chosen to vary within the ranges 0.14 to 0.22 <strong>and</strong> 0.04<br />

to 0.12 for light (LC) <strong>and</strong> heavy (HC) crop load, respectively.<br />

decreases, whereas dry matter increases during this period. When transpiration<br />

increases, the hydrostatic pressure in the fruit decreases, which causes growth to<br />

slowdown <strong>and</strong>, eventually, to stop. The low plant water potential during daytime<br />

reduces the water uptake so that it cannot compensate for the high rate <strong>of</strong> fruit<br />

transpiration; therefore, water balance is equal to zero or is negative during daytime.<br />

The most intensive increase in fresh fruit mass takes place during the night.<br />

In conclusion, the SWAF model <strong>of</strong> fruit growth takes into consideration the<br />

fundamental processes <strong>and</strong> their response to external signals. As SWAF is based

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