WATER STATUS MONITORING IN GREENHOUSE CROPS

ISHS Acta Horticulturae 304: I International Workshop on Sensors in Horticulture

WATER STATUS MONITORING IN GREENHOUSE CROPS

Author:

A. Baille

Abstract:
In the first part of this paper, we briefly present the essential features of water status monitoring in its applications for greenhouse crop management (irrigation, climate control). Emphasis is put on three basic questions :

what type of process should be surveyed?
where in the "soil-plant-atmosphere" continuum should be the sensors?
how to use the information from sensors ?

In the second part, a review of presently available sensors for water status assessment is presented, including sensors for climate, soil and plant characterization. Three criteria have been choosen in the evaluation of the sensors:

level of difficulty
reliability
usability by growers.

Two particular techniques for plant water status monitoring are discussed in more details : infrared thermometry (IRT) and linear displacement transducers (LVDT), as these two sensors present a promising future for horticultural applications.

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