Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Based Early Season Growth Parameters for Cotton Phenotyping

Early season plant biophysical parameters such as stand establishment, plant spacing, canopy cover, canopy volume, and their uniformity within the plot are important determinants of final yield in cotton. Traditionally, decisions about cultivar advancement in cotton breeding programs have been made based on final genotype yield. Incorporating early season crop parameters during the cultivar development process has always been challenging due to time, cost, and labor requirements. UAS are becoming important tools to assist scientists overcome these limitations by providing high spatial and temporal-resolution data that can be used to evaluate genotype performance throughout the growing season. Quantitative assessment of a genotype can be carried out early in the season and it is possible to predict stress recovery and final yield production using UAS data. In this study, we hypothesize that cotton breeding plots can be ranked at different times throughout the growing season on the basis of visual assessments on biophysical parameters and correlate with the UAS derived canopy cover and vegetation indices and final yield. This relationship can provide a basis to develop models that can predict the performance of cotton cultivars early in the season by incorporating within plot variability of small breeding plots.