We obtained an initial success in detecting fine root biomass of winter wheat and energy cane using the ground penetrating radar (GPR) system attached with a 1600 MHz antenna. This progress provides hope for predicting crop fine root biomass remotely under field conditions.
In collaboration with wheat breeders, we are developing methods for predicting leaf rust infection rate using ground-based phenotyping methods. We demonstrated that canopy reflectance at red-edge band reflects the presence of leaf rust in winter wheat during the flowering stage.
We are currently developing regression models to link the leaf water potential of field crops based on normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) obtained from ground-based phenotyping tools. This will assist in crop improvement through rapid characterization of drought tolerance capacity of crop genotypes under field conditions.
