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The authors of the article "Determination of Crop Water Stress Index and Irrigation Timing on Olive Trees Using a Handheld Infrared Thermometer" discuss the comment made for the article. They explain that the negative value of the crop water stress index (CWSI) is caused by the scattered data used in many studies and can be considered as a result of variability in data collection.

The objective of this study was to determine plant water stress using Chlorophyll Readings (ChRs) and Leaf Water Content (LWC) measurements for watermelon in the Canakkale region of western Turkey. ChRs and LWC were measured before (BI) and after irrigation (AI). Six different irrigation treatments (S100, (control), S80, S60 S40, S20 and S0 (non-irrigated)) were applied with drip irrigation. Growth stages were divided into three categories: (1) flowering (F), (2) fruit growth (FG) and (3) ripening and harvest (RH). ChRs and LWC for both irrigation treatments and all growing stages were calculated by means of ANOVA using SPSS for Windows statistical software. It was seen that ChRs and LWC decreased from S100 to S0 during growth period. The coefficient of determination (R2) and linear equation between ChRs and LWC for F, FG and RH stages were found to be 0.751, 0.805 and 0.878, respectively. Result of this study has shown that LWC and ChRs measurements can be used to determine water stress especially F period and the beginning FG periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]