Simultaneous measurements of tomato fruit and stem water potentials using in situ stem hygrometers

1989 ◽  
Vol 67 (8) ◽  
pp. 2352-2355 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. R. Lee ◽  
M. A. Dixon ◽  
R. W. Johnson

Simultaneous measurements were made of the water potentials of the stem and fruit of intact tomato plants (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill. var. Heinz 2653) using in situ temperature-corrected stem psychrometers. Water potential of the fruit remained consistently lower than the water potential of the stem except when the plant had been subjected to prolonged water stress. Stem water potential recovered quickly with rewatering, increasing by approximately 0.5 MPa in 1 h, but the water potential of the fruit remained consistently near −1.0 MPa. The results indicate a significant resistance to water flow between the stem and the fruit and a substantial hydraulic capacitance represented by the volume of the fruit. Diurnal changes in dimensions of tomato fruit were also measured. Fruit diameter expanded at night and contracted during the day even when the water potential gradient favoured flow towards the fruit. This indicates that bidirectional flow (to and from the fruit) is not responsible for the observed diurnal changes in the fruit dimensions.

OENO One ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 123 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Manuel Mirás-Avalos ◽  
Emiliano Trigo-Córdoba ◽  
Yolanda Bouzas-Cid

<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Aims</strong>: To evaluate the usefulness of predawn water potential (<strong>Ψ</strong><sub>pd</sub>) to assess the water status of Galician grapevine cultivars for irrigation purposes.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Methods and results</strong>: Three Galician white grapevine cultivars (Albariño, Godello and Treixadura) were subjected to rain-fed and irrigation conditions during the 2013 growing season. Diurnal changes in leaf water potential (<strong>Ψ</strong><sub>l</sub>) were measured using a pressure chamber on days with high evapotranspiration demand. Stem water potential (<strong>Ψ</strong><sub>s</sub>) was measured at midday. <strong>Ψ</strong><sub>pd</sub> was not able to discriminate between treatments, whereas <strong>Ψ</strong><sub>l</sub> and <strong>Ψ</strong><sub>s</sub> at midday were able to detect significant differences in water status among plants.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Conclusion</strong>: <strong>Ψ</strong><sub>pd</sub> was not useful to evaluate vine water status under the Galician climatic conditions. In contrast, both <strong>Ψ</strong><sub>l</sub> and <strong>Ψ</strong><sub>s</sub> were effective for detecting differences between treatments and can thus be used for irrigation management purposes.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Significance and impact of the study</strong>: This is the first study evaluating water status of Galician grapevine cultivars. It also provides useful information about the strategy for its control through measurements of midday <strong>Ψ</strong>l or <strong>Ψ</strong>s.</p>


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nataniel Holtzman ◽  
Leander D. L. Anderegg ◽  
Simon Kraatz ◽  
Alex Mavrovic ◽  
Oliver Sonnentag ◽  
...  

Abstract. Vegetation optical depth (VOD) retrieved from microwave radiometry correlates with the total amount of water in vegetation, based on theoretical and empirical evidence. Because the total amount of water in vegetation varies with relative water content (as well as with biomass), this correlation further suggests a possible relationship between VOD and plant water potential, a quantity that drives plant hydraulic behavior. Previous studies have found evidence for that relationship on the scale of satellite pixels tens of kilometers across, but these comparisons suffer from significant scaling error. Here we used small-scale remote sensing to test the link between remotely sensed VOD and plant water potential. We placed an L-band radiometer on a tower above the canopy looking down at red oak forest stand during the 2019 growing season in central Massachusetts, United States. We measured stem xylem and leaf water potentials of trees within the stand, and retrieved VOD with a single-channel algorithm based on continuous radiometer measurements and measured soil moisture. VOD exhibited a diurnal cycle similar to that of leaf and stem water potential, with a peak at approximately 5 AM. VOD was also positively correlated with both the measured dielectric constant and water potentials of stem xylem over the growing season. The presence of moisture on the leaves did not affect the observed relationship between VOD and stem water potential. We used our observed VOD-water potential relationship to estimate stand-level values for a radiative transfer parameter and a plant hydraulic parameter, which compared well with the published literature. Our findings support the use of VOD for plant hydraulic studies in temperate forests.


2001 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 609-615 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allan Fulton ◽  
Richard Buchner ◽  
Cyndi Gilles ◽  
Bill Olson ◽  
Nick Bertagna ◽  
...  

Covering a plant leaf with a reflective, water impervious bag ensures that equilibrium is reached between the nontranspiring leaf and the stem, and appears to improve the accuracy of determining plant water status under field conditions. However, the inconvenience of covering the leaf for 1 to 2 hours before measuring stem water potential (SWP) has constrained on-farm adoption of this irrigation management technique. A second constraint has been that the requirement of midafternoon determinations limits the area that can be monitored by one person with a pressure chamber. This paper reports findings from field studies in almonds (Prunus dulcis),prunes (P. domestica), and walnuts (Juglans regia) demonstrating modified procedures to measure midday SWP, making it a more convenient and practical tool for irrigation management. For routine monitoring and irrigation scheduling, an equilibration period of 10 min or longer appears to be suitable to provide accurate SWP measurements. Based on the large sample sizes in this study, we estimate that measurement error related to equilibration time for SWP can be reduced to an acceptable level [0.05 MPa (0.5 bar)] with a sample size of about 10 leaves when using a 10-min equilibration period. Under orchard conditions where tree growth and health appears uniform, a sample of one leaf per tree and 10 trees per irrigation management unit should give an accurate mean indicator of orchard water status. Under more variable orchard conditions a larger sample size may be needed. Midmorning and midday SWP both exhibited similar seasonal patterns and responded alike to irrigation events. On some occasions, midday SWP was accurately predicted from midmorning SWP and the change in air vapor pressure deficit (VPD) from midmorning to midday, but both over- and underestimate errors [to 0.3 MPa (3.0 bar)] appeared to be associated with unusually low or high diurnal changes in VPD, respectively. Hence, direct measurement of SWP under midday conditions (about 1300 to 1500 hr) is still recommended.


2004 ◽  
Vol 129 (4) ◽  
pp. 486-490 ◽  
Author(s):  
Avinoam Nerd ◽  
Peter M. Neumann

Hylocereus undatus [(Haworth) Britton and Rose] is a vine cactus from central America that has been established as a new fruit crop (pitaya) in many tropical and subtropical countries. In order to develop improved irrigation practices, the relationships between water parameters and growth were studied in rooted stem cuttings growing in pots with sandy soil under well-watered and drought-stressed conditions, in a controlled environment. Soil water potential rapidly decreased from -0.02 to -1.5 MPa during the first 5 days of drought. However, growth of new stems emerging from the succulent mature stems only decreased significantly after 3 weeks of drought. After 3 weeks of drought, the water content of growing stems decreased by 2% (P < 0.05) and their water potentials by 0.05 MPa (P > 0.05), as compared with the irrigated controls. At the same time, water content in drought-treated mature stems decreased by 4% (P < 0.05) and water potentials by 0.25 MPa (P < 0.05). Several lines of evidence indicated that active phloem supply of assimilates and associated water reserves from mature stems was the mechanism that allowed developing stems of H. undatus to maintain growth under well-watered and drought conditions: 1) Girdling the phloem of growing stems rapidly inhibited stem elongation. 2) Secretion of sucrose-containing nectar by growing stems was maintained during drought. 3) The water potential gradient was in the wrong direction for xylem transport from mature to young growing stems and axial hydraulic conductivity in young stems was either zero or comparatively low.


1985 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 77 ◽  
Author(s):  
NJ Legge ◽  
DJ Connor

An osmotic tensiometer has been successfully used for in situ measurements of stem water potential, Ψst, in mountain ash. During spring and early summer when soils were saturated, fluctuations in Ψst, at a given height in different trees were very similar. When Ψst, values were measured at different positions around the circumference of individual trees during late summer, considerable variation between the different positions was recorded. The data at this time also suggest that night temperatures above 17°C can lead to stomatal opening, but this was not confirmed by direct measurement. Possible reasons for apparent discrepancies between leaf and stem water potential measurements are discussed. The time lag between vapour pressure deficit and Ψst was around 2 h whenΨst values were high, but fell to 10 min or less for Ψst values below about - 1.2 MPa. Analysing this time lag in terms of a resistance-capacitance model of water flow made it possible to estimate the storage-to-vessel transfer resistance as 1.7 × 107 Pa s m3 kg-1.


2001 ◽  
Vol 126 (2) ◽  
pp. 252-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amos Naor

Interrelations between water potential and fruit size, crop load, and stomatal conductance were studied in drip-irrigated `Spadona' pear (Pyrus communis L) grafted on quince C (Cydonia oblonga L.) rootstock and growing in a semi-arid zone. Five irrigation rates were applied in the main fruit growth phase: rates of 0.25, 0.40, 0.60, 0.80, and 1.00 of “Class A” pan evaporation rate. The crop in each irrigation treatment was adjusted to four levels (200 to 1200 fruit per tree) by hand thinning at the beginning of June 1999. The crop was harvested on 1 Aug. 1999, and fruit size was determined by means of a commercial sorting machine. Soil, stem, and leaf water potentials and stomatal conductance were measured during the season. Crop yield was highly correlated with stem and soil water potentials. The highest midday stem water potential was lower than values commonly reported for nonstressed trees, and was accompanied by high soil water potential, indicating that the maximal water absorption rate of the root system under those particular soil conditions was limited. Stomatal conductance was highly correlated with leaf water potential (r2 = 0.54), but a much better correlation was found with stem water potential (r2 = 0.80). Stomatal conductance decreased at stem water potentials less than -2.1 MPa. Both stem water potential and stomatal conductance were unaffected by crop load under a wide range of irrigation rates.


1999 ◽  
Vol 124 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Naor ◽  
I. Klein ◽  
H. Hupert ◽  
Y. Grinblat ◽  
M. Peres ◽  
...  

The interactions between irrigation and crop level with respect to fruit size distribution and soil and stem water potentials were investigated in a nectarine (Prunus persica (L.) Batsch. `Fairlane') orchard located in a semiarid zone. Irrigation treatments during stage III of fruit growth ranged from 0.62 to 1.29 of potential evapotranspiration (ETp). Fruit were hand thinned to a wide range of fruit levels (200 to 1200 fruit/tree in the 555-tree/ha orchard). Total yield did not increase with increasing irrigation rate above 0.92 ETp in 1996 and maximum yield was found at 1.06 ETp in 1997. Fruit size distribution was shifted towards larger fruit with increasing irrigation level and with decreasing crop level. The two highest irrigation treatments had similar midday stem water potentials. Our findings indicate that highest yields and highest water use efficiency (yield/water consumption) are not always related to minimum water stress. Total yield and large fruit yield were highly and better correlated with midday stem water potential than with soil water potential. This confirms other reports that midday stem water potential is an accurate indicator of tree water stress and may have utility in irrigation scheduling.


2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 739-753
Author(s):  
Nataniel M. Holtzman ◽  
Leander D. L. Anderegg ◽  
Simon Kraatz ◽  
Alex Mavrovic ◽  
Oliver Sonnentag ◽  
...  

Abstract. Vegetation optical depth (VOD) retrieved from microwave radiometry correlates with the total amount of water in vegetation, based on theoretical and empirical evidence. Because the total amount of water in vegetation varies with relative water content (as well as with biomass), this correlation further suggests a possible relationship between VOD and plant water potential, a quantity that drives plant hydraulic behavior. Previous studies have found evidence for that relationship on the scale of satellite pixels tens of kilometers across, but these comparisons suffer from significant scaling error. Here we used small-scale remote sensing to test the link between remotely sensed VOD and plant water potential. We placed an L-band radiometer on a tower above the canopy looking down at red oak forest stand during the 2019 growing season in central Massachusetts, United States. We measured stem xylem and leaf water potentials of trees within the stand and retrieved VOD with a single-channel algorithm based on continuous radiometer measurements and measured soil moisture. VOD exhibited a diurnal cycle similar to that of leaf and stem water potential, with a peak at approximately 05:00 eastern daylight time (UTC−4). VOD was also positively correlated with both the measured dielectric constant and water potentials of stem xylem over the growing season. The presence of moisture on the leaves did not affect the observed relationship between VOD and stem water potential. We used our observed VOD–water-potential relationship to estimate stand-level values for a radiative transfer parameter and a plant hydraulic parameter, which compared well with the published literature. Our findings support the use of VOD for plant hydraulic studies in temperate forests.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 1759
Author(s):  
Said A. Hamido ◽  
Kelly T. Morgan

The availability and proper irrigation scheduling of water are some of the most significant limitations on citrus production in Florida. The proper volume of citrus water demand is vital in evaluating sustainable irrigation approaches. The current study aims to determine the amount of irrigation required to grow citrus trees at higher planting densities without detrimental impacts on trees’ water relation parameters. The study was conducted between November 2017 and September 2020 on young sweet orange (Citrus sinensis) trees budded on the ‘US-897’ (Cleopatra mandarin x Flying Dragon trifoliate orange) citrus rootstock transplanted in sandy soil at the Southwest Florida Research and Education Center (SWFREC) demonstration grove, near Immokalee, Florida. The experiment contained six planting densities, including 447, 598, and 745 trees per ha replicated four times, and 512, 717, and 897 trees per ha replicated six times. Each density treatment was irrigated at 62% or 100% during the first 15 months between 2017 and 2019 or one of the four irrigation rates (26.5, 40.5, 53, or 81%) based on the calculated crop water supplied (ETc) during the last 17 months of 2019–2020. Tree water relations, including soil moisture, stem water potential, and water supplied, were collected periodically. In addition, soil salinity was determined. During the first year (2018), a higher irrigation rate (100% ETc) represented higher soil water contents; however, the soil water content for the lower irrigation rate (62% ETc) did not represent biological stress. One emitter per tree regardless of planting density supported stem water potential (Ψstem) values between −0.80 and −0.79 MPa for lower and full irrigation rates, respectively. However, when treatments were adjusted from April 2019 through September 2020, the results substantially changed. The higher irrigation rate (81% ETc) represented higher soil water contents during the remainder of the study, the lower irrigation rate (26.5% ETc) represents biological stress as a result of stem water potential (Ψstem) values between −1.05 and −0.91 MPa for lower and higher irrigation rates, respectively. Besides this, increasing the irrigation rate from 26.5% to 81%ETc decreased the soil salinity by 33%. Although increasing the planting density from 717 to 897 trees per hectare reduced the water supplied on average by 37% when one irrigation emitter was used to irrigate two trees instead of one, applying an 81% ETc irrigation rate in citrus is more efficient and could be managed in commercial groves.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 1837
Author(s):  
Eve Laroche-Pinel ◽  
Sylvie Duthoit ◽  
Mohanad Albughdadi ◽  
Anne D. Costard ◽  
Jacques Rousseau ◽  
...  

Wine growing needs to adapt to confront climate change. In fact, the lack of water becomes more and more important in many regions. Whereas vineyards have been located in dry areas for decades, so they need special resilient varieties and/or a sufficient water supply at key development stages in case of severe drought. With climate change and the decrease of water availability, some vineyard regions face difficulties because of unsuitable variety, wrong vine management or due to the limited water access. Decision support tools are therefore required to optimize water use or to adapt agronomic practices. This study aimed at monitoring vine water status at a large scale with Sentinel-2 images. The goal was to provide a solution that would give spatialized and temporal information throughout the season on the water status of the vines. For this purpose, thirty six plots were monitored in total over three years (2018, 2019 and 2020). Vine water status was measured with stem water potential in field measurements from pea size to ripening stage. Simultaneously Sentinel-2 images were downloaded and processed to extract band reflectance values and compute vegetation indices. In our study, we tested five supervised regression machine learning algorithms to find possible relationships between stem water potential and data acquired from Sentinel-2 images (bands reflectance values and vegetation indices). Regression model using Red, NIR, Red-Edge and SWIR bands gave promising result to predict stem water potential (R2=0.40, RMSE=0.26).


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