On-the-go thermal imaging for water status assessment in commercial vineyards

The goal of this work was the assessment of commercial vineyard water status using on-the-go thermal imaging. On-the-go thermal imaging acquisition was conducted with a thermal camera operating at 1.20m distance from the canopy, mounted on a quad moving at 5 km/h. Canopy temperature, cross water stress index (CWSI) and stomatal conductance index (Ig) were strongly and significantly correlated to stem water potential (Ψstem) in east and west side of the canopy. For CWSI, the values of the coefficient of determination (R ) were 0.88*** and 0.73*** for east and west sides, respectively. As regards the index Ig, its relationships with Ψstem showed R = 0.89*** and R= 0.77*** for east and west sides, respectively. These results are promising and evidence the potential of on-the-go thermal imaging to become a new tool to evaluate the vineyard water status.