Water potential is critical to guide irrigation timing and quantity, dramatically affecting crop yield, quality, and water use efficiency

Growers lack tools to measure water potential accurately, automatically, and long-term, leading to preventable crop losses and excess water use. Florapulse has demonstrated the only sensor that meets these requirements, a microtensiometer that directly measures water potential in the plant stem, but the current installation method is too large for a majority of commercial crops (i.e., corn, cotton, blueberry, etc.).we aim to develop an installation method that is 10X faster, easier, and dramatically smaller to allow widespread water potential measurement in small crop stems; as part of this effort, we will also survey crop wounding response to sensor installation and validate the small-stem installation method in the laboratory and commercial farms. This small-stem sensor will enable realtime water potential measurement in crops worth over $500 billion worldwide and could lead to 20% yield increases and 50% water savings.