Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Horticulturae

Volume

12

Issue

9

Publisher

MDPI AG

Publication Date

9-2-2026

Journal Article Version

Version of Record

First Page

1

Last Page

21

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Abstract

Irrigation guidelines are needed for the field production of emerging specialty crops to support the sustainability and economic viability of small farms. The goal of this study was to establish crop coefficients (Kc) of dahlia (Dahlia × hybrida), a popular, profitable cut flower crop, while documenting virus infection. A two-year field study was conducted with two industry-important cultivars that vary in production timing and bloom: ‘Boom Boom White’, an earlier and mid-sized formal decorative, and ‘Café au Lait’, a later and large informal decorative bloom type. A field water balance was used to evaluate five irrigation rates (I), as a percentage of the estimated crop evapotranspiration, ETc: 100% of ETc (I100), two deficit irrigation (DI) rates of 80 and 60% (I80 and I60), and two regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) rates during the vegetative stage (I80/100 and I60/100). The Kc of both cultivars were 1.0 during the vegetative stage and 1.1 during the reproductive stage and estimated to be 0.7 during establishment. Both DI and RDI delayed and reduced yields, while virus infection led to cultivar-specific responses. ‘Café au Lait’ had greater sensitivity to viral infection and water stress, particularly when under co-infection with two or more viruses; this occurred for ‘Boom Boom White’ with three viruses.

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