Use of soil and vegetation spectroradiometry to investigate crop water use efficiency of a drip irrigated tomato

•Real time irrigation soil moisture systems allowed high tomato yield levels.•WUE was in the upper range of literature values on tomato.•Soil reflectances were related to clay materials.•PVI, SAVI, WDVI, OSAVI were the best indices significantly related to WUE.•PVI well detect the field zones with low WUE.

An agronomic research was conducted in Tuscany (Central Italy) to evaluate the effects of an advanced irrigation system on the water use efficiency (WUE) of a tomato crop and to investigate the ability of soil and vegetation spectroradiometry to detect and map WUE. Irrigation was applied following an innovative approach based on CropSense system. Soil water content was monitored at four soil depths (10, 20, 30 and 50 cm) by a probe. Rainfall during the crop cycle reached 162 mm and irrigation water applied with a drip system amounted to 207 mm, distributed with 16 irrigation events. Tomato yield varied from 7.10 to 14.4 kg m−2, with a WUE ranging from 19.1 to 38.9 kg m−3. The irrigation system allowed a high yield levels and a low depth of water applied, as compared to seasonal ET crop estimated with Hargraves’ formula and with the literature data on irrigated tomato. Measurements were carried out on geo-referenced points to gather information on crop (crop yield, eighteen Vegetation indices, leaf area index) and on soil (spectroradiometric and traditional analysis). Eight VIs, out of nineteen ones analyzed, showed a significant relationship with georeferenced yield data; PVI maps seemed able to return the best response, before harvesting, to improve the knowledge of the area of cultivation and irrigation system. CropSense irrigation system reduced seasonal irrigation volumes. Some vegetation indexes were significantly correlated to tomato yield and well identify, a posteriori, crop area with low WUE; spectroradiometry can be a valuable tool to improve irrigated tomato field management.