Management of drought stress in field phenotyping

In managed drought stress trials, it is critical to achieve the required level of drought at the target crop stage in order to generate high-quality, repeatable trial data.

The three key factors to be taken account are:

• When to stop irrigation to impose the desired level of drought stress at the targeted crop stage
• How to track drought progress in the field, in terms of stress severity and uniformity
• When to resume irrigation to terminate stress and achieve the desired level of drought, in terms of intensity and duration.

This manual presents a standardized, field-based precision phenotyping protocol for the quantitative management of reproductive-stage drought stress in maize. 

The manual covers the various steps involved in managed drought stress field-based precision phenotyping. 

The same principles can by modified for the case of other crops and / or crop stage.