ABSTRACT
While there has been extensive research in measuring plant water status and its impact on plant processes and aspects of crop production, relatively little work has been published on giving specific protocols for using plant-based measurements in irrigation scheduling. This is likely the result of plant water status being very dynamic since the plant is coupled to both its soil water and atmospheric surroundings. Thus, no single value can be used to indicate the onset of water stress. Plant water status changes diurnally and over the season, and its dynamic nature makes it difficult to identify threshold values for practical use. Plant water measurements, by themselves, mean little if they are not considered relative to the equivalent measurements representing fully irrigated plants in the same environment. This has been accomplished by developing ‘‘reference’’ or ‘‘baseline’’ values, representing the behavior of plants under non-limiting soil water supply.
