The present investigation was carried out at the Agricultural Scientific
Research Center in Swieda to study the effect of deficit irrigation on the growth
of four apple seedlings rootstocks genotypes and to estimate their ability to
drought tolera
nce particularly in light of the lack of water sources and no rain.
Two irrigation levels: 100% (control) and 75% of water requirements were
applied. The shoot length, leaves number, leaves area, the distribution of the
roots in soil, the depth of irrigation water in the soil and the consumption of
water in each level were measured. Results showed that irrigation with 75% of
field capacity on studied genotypes caused reduction of shoots length, decline of
leaves number and area and the depth of root comparing with the control.
There were significant differences between studied genotypes in terms of vigor
where the genotypes C and S2 were superior than A and B.
