Effectiveness of Chlorophyll Meter Measurement in Winter Wheat at Field Scale Level

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship among chlorophyll meter Yara N-Tester readings, nutrition status and growth parameters (leaf area index (LAI), plant height) of the winter wheat plants. Data used in this study were collected in 2010 from two fields located in the Czech Republic (area 52 and 38 ha) from different farms, both with uniform and conventional crop management. The monitoring of crop stands was done at growth stage BBCH 30 in a regular sampling grid with 150 m distance between points (27 and 18 points). At each sampling point, the plant height, LAI (Delta-T SunScan) and the chlorophyll concentration (Yara N-Tester) were recorded. Plant samples were taken to analyse the content of main nutrients (N, P, K, Mg, Ca and S). The results of plant analysis showed that both fields were in different nutrition status: one in a correct status and another had a complex nutritional deficit (K, Ca and N). Linear regressions and ANOVA proved that under a multiple nutritional deficit, N-Tester readings responded to the growth of the crop, while in the adequate nutritional conditions the sensitivity of N-Tester to the variation in the nitrogen concentration is lower. The relationships between crop parameters and chlorophyll meter readings are not generalisable and thus the interpretation of N-Tester results has to be done separately for each field.

Keywords

• plant diagnosis
• nitrogen status
• leaf transmittance
• crop fertilisation
• precision agriculture