The pressure bomb is an infernal little device used to test the water stress level of plants. Appropriately enough, the company making this machine was actually called PMS (i believe Pressure Monitoring Systems).. The premise of the machine is that you clamp a plant into a little chamber, with the stem sticking out. Then you pressurize the chamber and watch the stem until water comes bubbling out, at which point you note the pressure in the chamber This supposedly measures how hard the plant is 'sucking', basically.

This machine is a pain in the butt to use, and occasionally it would actually shoot the whole stem out of the chamber.

The worst of it all was that someone decided that it was best to test the plants before sunrise. So we'd be out there at 4 AM trying to cross a flooded creek in below freezing conditions, climbing down cliffs, and cutting sticks off of trees. Whoever invented this Pressure Bomb thing should be shot.

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