Trees Send a Text Message “I’m thirsty!”

Measuring electric conductivity inside the tree, a parameter of water stress, the Israeli researchers Eran Raveh and Arieh Nadler from the Volcani Institute of Agriculture, say that it will take about three to four years until the novel device is on the shelves. The device, still unnamed, will save farmers up to 30 to 40% in water use, he calculates. “The idea is that we were trying to find a way to give water more accurately to the trees. Usually [devices today] measure soil water content.” Measuring tree water content this way is “complicated and takes a lot of time until you get a ‘true’ measurement, because there are many varying parameters involved.”

To get a true estimate, a farmer must make a grueling check of 26 points in the ground around the plant. “We’ve found a different way for measuring a tree’s water status: by sticking probes into the main stem of the tree, we measure electric conductivity of the stem, and analyze the data to tell if the tree is under good water conditions,” says Raveh. “Our solution is cheap; it can be automated and is very accurate.”

Whether the information collected will be transmitted by SMS, e-mail message, fax, or sent to switch on an automated tap, is a matter of simple programming. Raveh envisions the cost will be very affordable, about US $250 per orchard: only one probe will be needed to reflect the water content in about every 500 trees. For more information: eran@agri.gov.il

Excerpts of an article by Karen Kloosterman,

 www.israel21c.org