2.2. Watering intervals
During the first season, the plots were irrigated normally, once
every week throughout the season except at the time of water stress
application, where watering was withheld for an interval of 2 weeks
only once for every treatment “growth stage”. While during the
second season, the intervals of watering were extended to 3 weeks
instead of two. The quantity of water supplied was 1 m3/plot per
irrigation during the season. Ten plants were randomly selected in
each plot from the middle rows at the time when the plants were
reaching the designated stage of growth and development for the
water stress treatment. The first inflorescence from each selected
plant was tagged giving them a serial number from 1 to 10 with the
corresponding code of the treatment.