Validation of plant-based sensors for making irrigation decisions
Author: Lee Kalcsits
Published: 2023
Summary: : Early detection of undesirable water deficit is important for avoiding any penalization in fruit size, yield and tree growth. Early visual cues indicating water stress in apple trees are not so perceptible once they appear, it is often too late to avoid negative effects of severe water stress causes on fruit quality, yield, and tree growth. Precision sensors such as dendrometers can be crucial and make that task much easier. Dendrometers are well-studied, plant-based sensors that continuously measure small fluctuations (shrinkage and swelling) in trunk or fruit diameter resulting from variation in sap flow. Trunk and fruit dendrometers can be used to detect and quantify water stress to improve irrigation scheduling in fruit trees. Microtensiometers are plant-based water status sensors than can continuously measure stem water potential, the reference indicator for assessing water status in trees
