A vacuum infiltration technique was developed that enabled the extraction of apoplastic solution with very little cytoplasmic contamination as evident from a malate dehydrogenase activity of less than 1% in the apoplastic solution relative to that in bulk leaf extracts. The volume of apoplastic water, a prerequisite for determination of the concentration of apoplastic solutes, was determined by vacuum infiltration of indigo carmine with subsequent analysis of the dilution of the dye in apoplastic extracts. Indigo carmine was neither transported across the cell membrane nor significantly adsorbed to the cell walls, ensuring reproducible (SE < 2%) and precise determination of apoplastic water. Analysis of leaves from four different positions on senescing Brassica napus plants showed a similar apoplastic pH of 5.8, while apoplastic NH4+ increased from 1.1 mM in lower leaves to 1.3 mM in upper leaves. Inhibition of glutamine synthetase in young B. napus plants resulted in increasing apoplastic pH from 6.0 to 6.8 and increasing apoplastic NH4+ concentration from 1.0 to 25.6 mM, followed by a marked increase in NH3 emission. Calculating NH3 compensation points for B. napus plants on the basis of measured apoplastic H+ and NH4+ concentrations gave values ranging from 4.3 to 5.9 nmol NH3 mol-1 air, consistent with an estimate of 5.3 [plus or minus] 3.6 nmol NH3 mol-1 air obtained by NH3 exchange experiments in growth chambers. A strong linear relationship was found between calculated NH3 compensation points and measured NH3 emission rates in glutamine synthetase-inhibited plants.