Am350 portable leaf area meter

Morphological measurements included plant height (cm); leaf area (LA) (mm²) measured using an AM350 Portable Leaf Area Meter (ADC BioScientific, Herts, UK); shoot fresh weight (FW); and dry weight (DW) (g) (after removing the root system) using a sensitive Fisher Scientific SG-402 laboratory balance (Hampton, NH, USA). For dry weight, plants were dried at 70 C° for 96 h [34 (link)].
For each stage of development, three replicates (in area) of four plants for each treatment were assessed.

Relative water content in AZ and leaves harvested after 48 and 51 days of plant growth in drought (25% WHC) and soil with optimal moisture (70% WHC, control plants) was measured using the drying method. Plant material (2 g) was weighed (analytical weight PB221S, Sartorius, an accuracy of ± 0.0001 g), placed in zinc vessels, and dried (SUP200W, WAMED) (60 °C) for 24 h. Then, plant material was cooled down in desiccator and weighed again. The relative water content percent (RWC) was determined through the following equation: RWC [%] = (FW-DW)/SW × 100, where FW: Fresh gross weight [g]; DW: Dry gross weight [g]; and SW: Sample weight [g]. The dried material was also used for element content determination.
The influence of drought stress on flower abortion rate was presented as a percentage of separated flowers in relation to the flowers formed by the plant. Additionally, we determined the effect of drought on the number of leaves per plant and leaf area per plant using AM350 Portable Leaf Area Meter (ADC BioScientific Ltd., Hoddesdon, UK). The maximum quantum efficiency of PS II (Fv/Fm) as a reliable marker of photo-inhibition [92 (link)] was measured using an OS-30P (Opti-Sciences, Inc., Hudson, NH, USA) according to the methods described by Weng (2006) [93 (link)]. The results were presented as the mean of the sum of the areas of all leaves per plant.