MEASUREMENT OF SHORT-TERM PLANT GROWTH

To study short-term plant response to changing temperatures, methods were developed, to measure physiological and morphological growth parameters.
With the equipment used, photosynthesis and respiration rates of whole plants can be measured in a time scale of a few minutes.
Morphological characteristics require longer periods.
Reasonable results were obtained with period lengths of 1 hour for tuber diameter and 2 hours for fresh weight and leaf area.

In experiments with fluctuating air temperature (changed from 10° C to 18° C every 2 hours) photosynthesis was high at 10° C and low at 18° C. The reverse was true for the respiration rate.

Short-term growth rates of the morphological characteristics depended on the water status of the plant, affected by air humidity and radiation.
With a constant saturation deficit of 0.4 hPA growth rates of fresh weight, tuber diameter, and leaf area were high at 18° C and low at 10° C.

International Symposium on Models for Plant Growth, Environmental Control and Farm Management in Protected Cultivation

M. Fink, H. Krug

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1989.248.51