LAUSR

Wet chemistry analysis of agricultural plant materials such as leaves is widely performed to quantify key chemical components to understand plant physiological status. Visible and near-infrared (Vis-NIR) spectroscopy is an interesting tool to replace the wet chemistry analysis, often labour intensive and time-consuming. Hence, this study accesses the potential of Vis-NIR spectroscopy to predict nitrogen (N) and potassium (K) concentration in bell pepper leaves. In the chemometrics perspective, the study aims to identify key Vis-NIR wavelengths that are most correlated to the N and K, and hence, improves the predictive performance for N and K in bell pepper leaves. For wavelengths selection, six different wavelength selection techniques were used. The performances of several wavelength selection techniques were compared to identify the best technique. As a baseline comparison, the partial least-square (PLS) regression analysis was used. The results showed that the Vis-NIR spectroscopy has the potential to predict N and K in pepper leaves with root mean squared error of prediction (RMSEP) of 0.28 and 0.44%, respectively. The wavelength selection in general improved the predictive performance of models for both K and N compared to the PLS regression. With wavelength selection, the RMSEP's were decreased by 19% and 15% for N and K, respectively, compared to the PLS regression. The results from the study can support the development of protocols for non-destructive prediction of key plant chemical components such as K and N without wet chemistry analysis.