Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** plant water status dramatically…

Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** plant water status dramatically affects crop yield and quality, but growers lack tools to measure water status accurately, automatically, and long-term. This leads 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 sensor probe and installation method are too large for a majority of commercial crops. We will develop a probe that is user friendly, reliable, and dramatically smaller to allow widespread water potential measurement in stems as little as 6 MM, then validate the sensor installation method in the laboratory and multiple commercial small-stem crops. We will improve sensor sensitivity and speed through changes in the microchip fabrication; develop a laboratory 'osmotic system' to simulate a tree installation for quickly testing sensor performance; develop improved sensor and hardware for installation, and develop an MVP comprising an inexpensive datalogger, smartphone APP, irrigation guidelines, and improved user interface. These system improvements will be field tested by our collaborators in grape, cotton, blueberry, soybean, and apple rootstock crosses across 4 states (CA, NY, or, AZ).the small-stem sensor developed will enable real-time water potential measurement in crops worth over $500 billion worldwide and could lead to 20% yield increases and 20%+ water savings.