A method for recording the formation and persistence of water deposits on plant shoots

✍ Scribed by J. M. Hirst

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1954
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 595 KB
• Volume: 80
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0035-9009
• DOI: 10.1002/qj.49708034410

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Apparatus has been designed to record the amount of water deposited on plant shoots by rain, dew and guttation, and how long the surfaces remain wet. These factors greatly influence the extent to which plants are infected by fungi causing such diseases as potato blight.

The water on a cut potato shoot, sealed into a water‐filled chamber placed on a balance, can be weighed by recording, on a rotating drum, the changes in equilibrium of the beam. Deposits from rain appear rapidly; their persistence depends on the weather. In contrast, dew is deposited slowly over a long period and dries more rapidly. The heaviest dew deposit recorded was 6.9 × 10^−3^ g cm^−2^ compared with 9.6 × 10 g cm^−2^ for the amount of water retained during rain.