Articles
UAV imagery to assess agronomic, physiological, and yield characteristics in a super-intensive almond orchard
Article number
1406_29
Pages
191 – 198
Language
English
Abstract
Super high density (SHD) orchards are relatively new for the Mediterranean Basin, particularly for Italian agriculture.
The trial was conducted in 2022 in an almond SHD orchard in Italy, Sardinia, aiming to characterize the intra-field variability for helping the orchard management.
During the growing season a vigor map was created from multispectral vegetation indices using very high-resolution UAV images; more specifically, we defined a low medium and high vigor intra-field area based on normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). Successively, during the kernel-filling period for each NDVI-based vigor level, we combine physiological/morphological measurements for different vigor components (stem water potential (Ψstem), photosynthesis activities, chlorophyll content, canopy structure, leaf area index). The yield and almond quality parameters were also recorded.
The pooled data proves the suitability of remote sensing and plant-based measurements for assessing response among the vigor assessments.
We found a significant difference in physiological, structural, and productive performance between high and low NDVI-based vigor levels.
The above findings suggest that the labeling of different vigor components need to be associated with a site-specific monitoring campaign to avoid vain or even misleading information about real agronomic needs.
The trial was conducted in 2022 in an almond SHD orchard in Italy, Sardinia, aiming to characterize the intra-field variability for helping the orchard management.
During the growing season a vigor map was created from multispectral vegetation indices using very high-resolution UAV images; more specifically, we defined a low medium and high vigor intra-field area based on normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). Successively, during the kernel-filling period for each NDVI-based vigor level, we combine physiological/morphological measurements for different vigor components (stem water potential (Ψstem), photosynthesis activities, chlorophyll content, canopy structure, leaf area index). The yield and almond quality parameters were also recorded.
The pooled data proves the suitability of remote sensing and plant-based measurements for assessing response among the vigor assessments.
We found a significant difference in physiological, structural, and productive performance between high and low NDVI-based vigor levels.
The above findings suggest that the labeling of different vigor components need to be associated with a site-specific monitoring campaign to avoid vain or even misleading information about real agronomic needs.
Authors
M. Lo Cascio, A. Deidda, C. Sirca, G. Nieddu, D. Spano, P. Deiana, F. Gambella, L. Mercenaro
Keywords
remote sensing, plant based, intraparcellar variability, Mediterranean ecosystems, precision agriculture, NDVI
Groups involved
Online Articles (66)