Using Variation in Stem Diameter as an Indicator to Diagnose Water Deficiency of Maize at Jointing Stage
LI Taolong
HU Xiaotao
WANG Ping
DU Bin
Abstract：We investigated the feasibility of using variation in stem diameter as an indication to diagnose water deficiency in maize at jointing stage based on pot experiment. During the experiment, the daily variations in maximum stem diameter shrinkage (MDS), increase in the diameter (DI) and recovering time (RT) for the diame-ter under three different treatments, as well as their relationships with soil moisture content were measured. The results showed that: ① MDS and DI under different treatments were impacted by water deficiency and the re-sponse of RT to soil water content was consistent in all three treatments;②MDS and DI were affected by envi-ronments rather than by soil moisture content;③the correlation coefficient between RT and soil moisture content was high and was consistent in all treatments. Compared with MDS and DI, RT is a robust indicator to diagnose water stress.
Keywords：maizestem diameterweather factordiagnosis index
Publication Date：2017-01-01
Online Publishing Date：2026-09-12(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：5( 18-21,37 )