ISHS Acta Horticulturae 230: Symposium on High Technology in Protected Cultivation
NON-DESTRUCTIVE MEASUREMENT OF WATER CONTENT OF A PLANT USING ULTRASONIC TECHNIQUE |
| Authors: | T. Torii, T. Okamoto, O. Kitani |
| Abstract:
There are ways to measure the water content of a plant without destruction, such as by leaf temperature or stem diameter. These, however, are influenced by environmental conditions and are also difficult to use in the field. A new instrumentation system using ultrasonic technique was developed to measure the water status of plants non-destructively. This is based on the principle that the ultrasonic velocity which goes through the stem and has a clear relation with the water content of the plant. The relationship between ultrasonic velocity and the water content of a plant was investigated in a phytotron and growth cabinet, and measurements were made of variations in velocity, diameter, and transpiration. The result showed that the variation in ultrasonic velocity had a clear relation with the water status of a plant, and this status could be estimated quantitatively using normalized velocity. | |
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