Evaluation of Cotton Genotypes Performance Using Ground-Based Remote Sensing

Remote sensing is increasingly being used for precision crop management, such as site-specific chemical applications and, more recently, for precision cultivar phenotyping.  The need to accurately and timely measure the response of a large number of genotypes to environmental stress is crucial to plant breeders for rapidly identifying superior genotypes.  Recent advances in remote sensing technologies using ground-based systems are now making it possible to accurately assess crop status and environmental conditions with sufficient spatial and temporal resolutions at a low cost.  A replicated test, including forty cotton commercial cultivars was used in this study.  Canopy temperature, multi-spectrum and ultrasonic sensors were mounted on a modified Spider Sprayer. Measurements were made four times during the growing season.   At the end of the season, we collected yield and quality parameters data.  The overriding hypothesis of this study is that crop status can be assessed accurately by remote sensing and the information can then be used to identify superior genotypes.  The development of high-throughput phenotyping techniques to readily assess crop status for breeding purposes is the major objective of this work.