A few words on grapevine leaf water potential

Abstract

The majority of vineyards are grown under limiting water supply, with consequences on grapevine physiology, berry growth and composition/quality versus wine styles. Assessing vine water status is crucial to understand vine function and to optimize drought mitigation strategies, such as irrigation. In this regard, the leaf water potential methods, notably predawn and stem water potentials, are relevant for quantifying vine water status and are generally used as references to calibrate others methods and/or for precision irrigation.