Infrared Thermography For Water Management In Tunnel Cultivation Of Strawberry (Fragaria X Ananassa Duch)

Water management of strawberry cultivation is one the main problems of for crop production in Colombia causing fruit loss or malformation. The objective of this work was to evaluate the use of thermographic images as a tool to detect water stress in strawberry cultivation, using the crop water stress index method (CWSI). Plants of two strawberry varieties (Fragaria x ananassa Duch) were irrigated withoptimum and slight hydric deficit conditions, in a high tunnel system at the Savannah of Bogota. Environmental variables (temperature, relative humidity, PAR radiation and vapor pressure deficit) and physiological variables (canopy temperature, substrate moisture content and stomata conductance) were monitored for five months, in order to validate the hydric status of the crop through the use of CWSI. It was concluded that using thermographic images is a valid tool to detect hydric stress in protected small crops, given its high correlation with other methods and is one of the most complete monitoring methods for water management, since it relates to physiological characteristics of the crop with environmental variables that affect it.