Water Use of Hydrangea macrophylla and Gardenia jasminoides in Response to a Gradually Drying Substrate

As a result of the lack of quantitative data regarding specific water requirements of ornamental species, precision irrigation can be a difficult task for nursery growers. One challenge for growers is that it is not clear how much of the water in soilless substrates is actually available for plant uptake. Substrate moisture release curves (MRC) have been used to predict the amount of plant-available water in soilless substrates, yet there is little information about whether there are differences among species in their ability to extract water from substrates. The objectives of this study were to determine 1) the hydraulic properties of a composted pine bark substrate; and 2) how water uptake in Hydrangea macrophylla and Gardenia jasminoides was affected by decreasing substrate volumetric water content (VWC). As the substrate VWC decreased from 0.38 to 0.17 m3·m−3, substrate matric potential decreased from –4.0 to –69 kPa, whereas hydraulic conductivity decreased from 0.115 to 0.000069 cm·d−1. To measure plant water uptake in a drying substrate, growth chambers were used to provide stable environmental conditions that included continuous lighting to prevent diurnal fluctuations in water use. Water use by H. macrophylla ‘Fasan’ started to decrease at a higher VWC (0.28 m3·m−3) than G. jasminoides ‘Radicans’ (0.20 m3·m−3). Plant water uptake stopped at a VWC of 0.16 m3·m−3 in H. macrophylla and 0.12 m3·m−3 in G. jasminoides. The results show that H. macrophylla is less adept at extracting water from a drying substrate than G. jasminoides. Traditionally, plant-available water in soilless substrates has been studied using substrate MRCs. Our data suggest that substrate hydraulic conductivity may be an important factor controlling water availability to the plants. In addition, there are important differences among species that cannot be detected by only looking at substrate hydraulic properties.