UAV Remote Sensing for Blackberry Flower Intensity Assessment

Résumé fourni par la source

Abstract. Blackberries (Rubus spp.) are one of the most economically important fruits in the genus Rubus due to increased consumption, expanded marketing, and improved cultivars. Currently, flowering intensity in blackberries is estimated using a visual scale in the field plots. However, this methodology is time-consuming, labor-consuming, and subjective. Given the need for a precise methodology for flowering intensity monitoring in blackberries, we developed an image-based phenotyping method. A subset of blackberry selections was evaluated for blooming intensity during the spring of 2023 in the Fruit Research Station of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. Images of blackberry plots during the early flowering stage were collected using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) coupled with an RGB digital camera. Each image was processed using Fiji (ImageJ) using the thresholding method for estimating the number of flowers. To evaluate the accuracy of this method, the flowering intensity was also evaluated through visual flower counting and a visual scale. Flowering intensity estimated using the thresholding method was highly correlated with visual flower counting (r = 0.927, p < 0.001) showing that the image-based method is accurate. Given that blackberry plots vary in plant quantity and canopy size, the next step will be to standardize the floral area by the canopy area to ensure comparability across plots.

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