Remote Sensing and Variable-Rate Application of Cotton Defoliant

by

Dan Martin

Contact: Dr. Dan Martin    e-mail: daniel.martin@ars.usda.gov

Summary:

Remote sensing is playing an increasingly important role in understanding the site-specific needs of crops.  Good uniformity can allow growers to harvest their crops in a timely manner while ensuring a high quality product.  A commercial cotton field was aerially photographed with a multi-spectral digital camera to determine the site-specific biomass within the field.  The photograph was then converted to a prescription map and a variable-rate application of defoliant was made to the cotton.  The crop was aerially imaged on a regular basis for 14 days after application to track leaf-drop.  In addition, ground-based NDVI data were obtained with a hand-held spectraradiometer at the same intervals.  Yield data were collected during harvest and leaf-drop uniformity was calculated for the field.  Results of the study will be presented.

Manuscript not available online; please contact author for manuscript information.

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