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Digital cameras, remote satellites measure crop water demand
July 21, 2008FRESNO, CA - Horticultural crops account for almost 50% of crop sales in the United States, and these crops are carefully managed to ensure good quality. But more information is needed about the crops' growth and response to seasonal and climatic changes so that management practices such as irrigation can be precisely scheduled. Existing research can be difficult to generalize because of variations in crops, planting densities, and cultural practices.
Determining growth stage, size, and water needs are especially important for horticultural crops because most crops are grown in limited water environments and require irrigation. The measurement of "canopy light interception" is a primary means of determining water and irrigation needs. Fractional canopy cover (CC) is a relatively easily measured property that is a good indicator of light interception. Canopy cover, the percent of the soil surface covered by plant foliage, is an important indicator of stage of growth and crop water use in horticultural crops. Methods of using remote sensors to determine canopy cover in major crops have been studied for years, but the studies have not included most horticultural crops.
Thomas J. Trout, Research Leader at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service, along with colleagues from the NASA Earth Science Division, recently published a study that addresses the relationship of remotely sensed normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) relative to canopy cover of several major horticultural crops in commercial fields.
The research team measured canopy cover of 11 different annual and perennial horticultural crops in various growth stages on 30 fields in California's San Joaquin Valley with a handheld multispectral digital camera. Canopy cover was compared with NDVI values calculated from Landsat 5 satellite imagery. According to Trout, "The NDVI was highly correlated and linearly related with measured CC across the wide range of crops, canopy structures, and growth stages, and predicted CC with mean absolute error of 0.047 up to effective full cover. These results indicate that remotely sensed NDVI may be an efficient way to monitor growth stage, and potentially irrigation water demand, of horticultural crops."
The research indicates that NDVI can potentially provide field-specific and regional estimates of CC for horticultural crops with minimal requirement for supporting information. This new information may also be useful to improve estimates of crop growth stage and water use.
American Society for Horticultural Science
The research team measured canopy cover of 11 different annual and perennial horticultural crops in various growth stages on 30 fields in California's San Joaquin Valley with a handheld multispectral digital camera. Canopy cover was compared with NDVI values calculated from Landsat 5 satellite imagery. According to Trout, "The NDVI was highly correlated and linearly related with measured CC across the wide range of crops, canopy structures, and growth stages, and predicted CC with mean absolute error of 0.047 up to effective full cover. These results indicate that remotely sensed NDVI may be an efficient way to monitor growth stage, and potentially irrigation water demand, of horticultural crops."
The research indicates that NDVI can potentially provide field-specific and regional estimates of CC for horticultural crops with minimal requirement for supporting information. This new information may also be useful to improve estimates of crop growth stage and water use.
American Society for Horticultural Science
Horticultural Crops Current Events and Horticultural Crops News RSSTension on the grapevine
Predictions of grape yields are extremely important to juice processors and wineries; timely and precise yield forecasts allow producers to plan for harvest and move the highly perishable grape crop from vine to processing efficiently.
Alternatives to pine bark and peatmoss identified for commercial, home gardens
Pine bark and peatmoss are the two most common substrates used for horticultural crop production in the southeastern United States, but both media can present challenges to growers. Reduced forestry production and increased use of pine bark as fuel and landscape mulch has made the medium less available, while the price of peatmoss is rising due to transportation costs and growing environmental concerns over the mining of peat bogs in Canada and Europe.
Study: Migrant laborers valuable to horticulture industry
Despite tremendous growth in mechanization and technological advances, nursery, greenhouse, and sod production in the U.S. are still extremely labor-intensive.
Killer freeze of '07 illustrates paradoxes of warming climate
A destructive spring freeze that chilled the eastern United States almost a year ago illustrates the threat a warming climate poses to plants and crops, according to a paper just published in the journal BioScience. The study was led by a team from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Gardens Will Be Planted By Computer Order
The program developed by Russian specialists of the North-Caucasian Scientific Research Institute of Gardening and Viticulture (Russian Agricultural Academy, Krasnodar) allows to select cultures, horticultural crops and other agricultural specimen the most profitable for a given locality. The development was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research and the Fund for Assistance to Small Innovative Enterprises (FASIE). If the program's advice is used competently, there will be no need to complain about bad harvest due to caprices of nature and due to soil and climatic predilections of various fruit cultures, first of all those of the drupaceous - apricot, peach, sweet cherries and
Greenhouse Gas Ban Could Push Up Food Prices
Food quality will fall, food costs will rise and stored food will be damaged. Historical relics may be lost to insect attack, rodent and insect infestations on public transport will swell, and fungal contamination of stored food will increase. According to a recent meeting of the Society of Chemical Industry (SCI) Pest Management Group, these may be the consequences of a worldwide phasing out of the crop protectant methyl bromide (MB). The SCI Pest Management Group invited acclaimed speakers from across the world to discuss whether there are viable, economic alternatives to MB at the conference 'Fumigants and soil sterilants: viable, economic alternatives to methyl bromide - myth or reality?
The Great British Research and R&D Show: Britain’s Top Younger Scientists, Engineers and Technologists flock to the House of Commons to display and communicate their latest discoveries.
About 250 of Britain’s top younger scientists, engineers and technologists descended on the House of Commons on Monday, 19 March for its Annual Reception for them – the third in a series which began in 1999. Robert Jackson M.P. was host for the lunch-time event while Dr Brian Iddon was host for the evening part. They came from all parts of the UK and from many parts of the science, engineering and technology spectrum – a very wide range of UK research and R&D was represented through the Posters displayed. Most of them were from the university sector, though there were representatives of PSRE Institutes and of Industry too. Organiser Dr Eric Wharton of SET for BRITAIN said t
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