The term water stress is used when there is a shortage of water. For most plants, including raspberry, a minor shortage of water does not constitute a problem. However, water stress is a subjective term because it is difficult to quantify the correct timing when water deficit is high enough to categorise it as plant water stress. This field experiment was designed to assess the effect of partial rootzone drying (PRD) and mulching on some physiological indices of 'Polka' raspberry canes. Four levels of irrigation were studied: one lateral to irrigate, two laterals to irrigate, side lateral to irrigate and without irrigation. Each treatment consisted of 10 plants, half of them were mulched with wood chips (size 1-2 cm) at a 20-cm layer. The experiment was conducted in Kosovo and using a nested experimental design. Based on two-way analysis of variance, we found significant changes in three physiological parameters. The level of irrigation had an effect on: stomatal conductance, leaf temperature and chlorophyll; the mulch had only impact on the leaf temperature, while irrigation and mulching had a combined influence only an effect on leaf temperature. Stomatal conductivity has been closely related to leaf temperature: the higher the leaf temperature was, the lower stomatal conductivity was. Chlorophyll between the treatments where the irrigation was applied the values were approximate. The highest leaf temperatures were found in no-irrigation treatment.
