The response of cassava to water deficits at various stages of growth in the subtropics

Cassava is a potential tuber crop for northern Australia where water stress is likely to occur during some stages of growth. Field and glasshouse experiments were conducted to examine the response of cassava to soil water deficits which developed at various stages. The field experiments, covering 10-month growth durations from planting in spring to harvesting in winter, showed that water stress occurring in summer or winter had small effects, but in autumn severely reduced the final yield. Autumn was the time of maximum bulking of underground storage organs in well-watered plants, and water stress which reduced assimilate production also reduced bulking. Temperature at this time was suboptimal for canopy development, and leaf area which was reduced during the stress did not increase after its relief, affecting further the growth of storage organs. Similarly, in the glasshouse experiment, plants recovered rapidly during early stages of growth, but when stress occurred later leaf area was reduced greatly, and recovery after its termination was poor. In all experiments, water deficits affected yield of storage organs but not the pattern of assimilate distribution, resulting in similar harvest indices among the plants of different watering treatments. It is concluded that the reduction in cassava yield (cv. M Aus 7) is caused by the reduction in total biomass production, and that stress occurring later in the season is most detrimental to yield because of the additional effect of reduced ability of old plants to recover leaf area after the stress is relieved.