LAUSR

BACKGROUND Health scouting of crops by satellite, airplanes, UAV and ground vehicles can only evaluate the crop from above. The visible leaves may show no disease symptoms, but lower, older can do, which are not visible from above. A mobile in-canopy sensor was developed, carried by a tractor to detect diseases in cereal crops. Photodiodes measure the reflected light in the red and infrared wavelength range in different vertical heights in lateral direction. RESULTS Significant differences occurred in the vegetation index NDVI of those sensor levels which were operated inside the winter wheat canopy between plots infected by stripe rust (2018, 2019) and leaf rust (2020). The differences were not significant at those sensor levels operated far above the canopy. CONCLUSIONS Lateral reflectance measurements inside the crop canopy are able to distinguish between disease infected and healthy crops. In future a mobile in-canopy scouting could be an extension to the common scouting praxis from above the canopy for making spraying decisions by the farmer or Decision Support Systems. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.