Automated detection and control of volunteer potato plants in sugar beet fields.
Aspects of Applied Biology ; 2010 [Vol.99] Pages:-
Abstract
In Western European cropping rotations, volunteer potato plants are a major weed problem, mainly because they spread Phytophthora infestans, which causes late blight in potato crops. The manual labour that is required for control of these plants can be reduced by using automated detection and control of volunteer potato plants in sugar beet fields. Machine vision was used to detect volunteer potato plants in real time conditions at a travel speed of 0.8 m s-1. Dose effect studies were performed to determine the right dose for control of volunteer plants with micro-sprayer-applied glyphosate in a gel. In a field trial the biological efficacy of the system was at the level where it controlled 84% of the volunteer potato plants.
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