It is not currently well-understood how much xylem conductance is lost in maize plants during the day, if conductance is recovered during the night, or what soil water conditions are required for recovery to take place. To answer these questions we designed a greenhouse experiment whereby two genetically dissimilar maize genotypes were subjected to a level of water stress commonly experienced in the field (Ψ ∼-2 MPa). We then measured the loss of stem-specific conductivity associated with this level of stress, as well as the overnight recovery following three re-watering treatments: Ψ ∼ 0 MPa, Ψ ∼-0.
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