Water status monitoring in grapevines with traditional and new automated sensors

Climate change scenarios together with the increasing request for sustainable crop farming push the irrigation sector toward a more efficient use of natural resources. This is particularly relevant for the wine industry in Mediterranean areas, where there is a growing interest for technologies and knowledge devoted to save water resources while maintaining wine production and quality. In this work, a set of plant water status related variables were continuously monitored using an automated platform and compared with stem water potential values measured with pressure chambers. The preliminary results showed a good potential for these new automated sensors for a real time monitoring of the vine water status.