Plants cannot speak up to ask for water when they are thirsty. They only
show signs of water loss when they are almost dried up. A study reported
in/ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces/presents a new wearable technology
that can be used to detect water loss earlier before plants show signs
of thirst.

Plant-wearable technology could be used byfarmers
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monitor their plants' health, particularly the leaf water content, which
is an indicator of metabolism anddrought stress. In a previous study,
the researchers used metal electrodes but these are detached easily,
which affect the accuracy of data. Thus, they explored redesigning the
electrodes so that they can be used for longer periods of time without
getting detached.

The researcher developed two types of electrodes: one made of nickel,
and the other cut from partially burnt paper coated with a waxy film.
When they attached these electrodes to detachedsoybeanleaves using clear
adhesive tape, the nickel-based type proved to be more efficient than
the other one. It also adhered to the leaf better. Then, they created a
plant-wearable device with metal electrodes and attached it to a living
plant in a greenhouse. The device wirelessly transmitted data to a
smartphone app and website. These data were converted into water loss
percentages using a fast machine learning tool.

A new wearable technology â?? for plants (video) - American Chemical
Society (acs.org)
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