Twenty days after rice (Oryza sativa L. ‘IR28’) emergence, water was withheld from the stress treatment for 20 days while the control was kept well-watered by furrow irrigation. In the control plots, rice leaf water potential at 0800 hours was –5.5 bars and leaf length 30 cm on the 12th day of stress. In the stress treatment, leaf water potential decreased to –8 bars and leaf length to 20 cm, when no weeds competed with rice. With maximum weed competition, rice leaf water potential decreased to –18 bars and leaf length to 15.5 cm. on the 20th day of stress, dawn (0600 h) leaf water potential of rice in the stress treatment was reduced from –8 bars when no weeds competed with rice to –19 bars when competition was maximum. The weed species had higher water potential values than the rice in both control and water-stress treatments.
