Jerusalem artichoke is a North American crop that is a rich source of the prebiotic inulin (tubers) and antioxidants (leaves) and both organs can also serve as feedstock for livestock and for biofuels. The crop is said to be tolerant to salinity, but the results are known to vary with cultivar. Salinity of waters destined to irrigated agriculture in semi-arid regions is steadily increasing worldwide, being an important restriction to crop yield, and threatening the food supply of an increasing population. While saline waters are more available and affordable than fresh water, the literature provides few management strategies and alternative crops that can be used with saline waters. This study investigated the effects of irrigating Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus L.) with high-salinity/low-salinity water mixtures during the whole crop cycle or in cycles. Plants were irrigated with low (1.2 dS m-1) and high-salinity controls (12 dS m-1) throughout the experiment or with waters with intermediate electric conductivity (EC) of 3.6, 6.4, and 9.2 dS m-1. Additionally, low-salinity and high-salinity controls were exchanged after 25, 50 and 75% of the irrigation period. The experiment was conducted in large outdoor sand tanks in a complete randomized design with eight treatments and three replicates. Both growth and tuber yield were significantly reduced from low- to high-salinity water controls, but no difference was found among intermediate treatments, including exchange from low- to high-salinity controls at any percentage of irrigation periods. Results suggest that the response of Jerusalem artichoke to salinity does not depend on the duration of exposure to salinity. From the crop perspective, both growth and tuber yield decreased with increasing salinity, but tuber yield was less affected by salinity than growth.

Saline water management strategy on growth and tuber yield of Helianthus tuberosus (L.) cv. Stampede

249th National Meeting (2015)

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