FloraPulse made the cut in UC's new stem water potential calculator! "If you are using a pressure chamber or FloraPulse sensors to manage your prune irrigation, you may be interested in our new online tool…" Thanks Curt Pierce and UCANR! sacvalleyorchards.com/prunes…

Napa's average high topped 90°F every day from Sept 29 to Oct 6. Through that heat, most Napa vineyard blocks FloraPulse reads slipped further below a fully watered vine, the typical block by about a bar. Worth a look this week. florapulse.com/how-to-read-a…

FloraPulse in giant reed! A team from UCSB, Occidental College and Lewis & Clark College is measuring how much water the invasive Arundo donax uses along the Santa Clara River. Not exactly an almond tree 😅 michaelbur.net/t/research/

FloraPulse is helping a tree talk! Canada's first "talking tree", a maple in Hamilton, Ontario. The Lorax would approve 🌳 "All of these sensors together give us a great data source on how this tree is doing." Dr. Nadina Galle landscapetrades.com/the-unhe…

Huge thanks to the agave team! 🌵 Paula Guzmán-Delgado (@ucdavisplants) and Giulia Marino (@UCANR) are starting an agave irrigation trial, and Ken Shackel put our first sensors in. Thrilled to tag along. Tequila science continues :)

The agave got a drink! Our first test sensors in agave just caught an irrigation: midday water potential jumped from about -10 to -3 bar in a day. Working better than I was expecting! Thanks Ken Shackel at UC Davis for the install. Tequila science, fingers still crossed :)

Wine grapes are one of the few crops where zero stress is not the goal. A mild deficit reins in shoot growth, and the right level differs by variety (Lakso et al. 2022). A target only helps if you can see the vine every day. Ask the vine. docs.florapulse.com/research…

FloraPulse in agave! Hold on to your liquor, we're moving into the tequila business. First ever test of microtensiometers in agave, at UC Davis with Ken Shackel. Always fun to try new crops, fingers crossed it works! Desert plants need love too :)

Almond harvest is winding down in the Sacramento Valley, but the weather still asks about 5 mm of water a day, more than half of July's. This week about three in four almond blocks FloraPulse reads moved closer to a fully watered tree. app.florapulse.com/stress-in…

Last week the average Napa vineyard block FloraPulse reads sat about 5.5 bars below a fully watered vine. After the pick, UC Cooperative Extension advises water to relieve that stress, so leaves keep building reserves for next spring. florapulse.com/how-to-read-a…

After harvest, almond trees develop next year's buds. UC Cooperative Extension suggests 2 to 4 bars below a fully watered tree. Last week the middle Sacramento Valley block FloraPulse reads sat 3.4 bars below. About a third were in that range. app.florapulse.com/stress-in…

Even a vine with all the water it wants reads further below zero on a hot day. So we report its distance below a fully watered vine. In Napa's heat wave that gap went from 4.5 bars on Sept 3 to 7.6 on Sept 10. FloraPulse reads it daily. app.florapulse.com/stress-in…

Napa went from 72F to 99F in six days, mid-harvest. Midday readings in the blocks we read fell 5.1 bars. A fully watered vine would have fallen 2.7 bars on the heat alone. The rest is ground the vines lost. FloraPulse measures which is which. app.florapulse.com/stress-in…

Napa blocks near six bars below baseline came back within three days 91% of the time after the pump ran. Where it did not run, 24%. The weather barely moved either way. FloraPulse reads the vine's answer to the water you put on. app.florapulse.com/stress-in…

Some Napa blocks we read spent most of this season within two bars of a fully watered vine. Others never spent a day there. The wettest tenth and the driest are 4.8 bars apart on season average. Part of that is site. The rest is a decision. app.florapulse.com/stress-in…

FloraPulse in macadamias! First season ever, at a commercial orchard in Queensland: probes going strong after 92 days and one trunk swinging 15 bar in a single winter day. Pressure chamber showdown next! app.florapulse.com/crop-data…

Two weeks, then the two weeks after. Same valley, same weather demand. A Napa vineyard block we read came back 1.6 bars toward baseline. Another went 2.5 bars the other way. The average barely moved. FloraPulse reads each block on its own. app.florapulse.com/stress-in…

Post-harvest in the Sacramento Valley. Most of the almond blocks we read have refilled — a median 4.9 bars back from their own driest point of the season. A few are still sitting at that low. Same weather, same week, different block. florapulse.com/almond-post-h…

Mid-July and late August, matched to a hundredth of a bar of modelled demand. On those days our Napa vineyard blocks read about 1.1 bars further from baseline in August. Identical ask from the atmosphere. Two months later, a different answer. app.florapulse.com/stress-in…

Same heat. Different vine. Six weeks across our Napa Valley network. On hot days one block sits two and a half bars further from baseline. Another doesn't move at all. FloraPulse reads every block against its own weather. app.florapulse.com/stress-in…