Assessment of phylloplane microorganism populations in Canterbury apple orchards

Assessment of Phylloplane Micro-organism Populations in Canterbury Apple Orchards

Micro-organism populations on the leaf surface can be an indicator of environmental health in orchards. A method was developed to detect changes in these populations in apple orchards. Firstly, the variation within orchards was investigated by sampling leaves from seven locations within four trees in spring and autumn. The population density and species richness of micro-organisms when grown on...

Robotic Surveying of Apple Orchards

We present a novel system for surveying apple orchards by counting apples and estimating apple diameters. Existing surveying systems resort to active sensors, or high-resolution close-up images under controlled lighting conditions. The main novelty of our system is the use of a traditional low resolution stereo-system mounted on a small aerial vehicle. Vision processing in this set up is challe...

Automated Crop Yield Estimation for Apple Orchards

Crop yield estimation is an important task in apple orchard management. The current manual sampling-based yield estimation is time-consuming, labor-intensive and inaccurate. To deal with this challenge, we developed a computer vision-based system for automated, rapid and accurate yield estimation. The system uses a two-camera stereo rig for image acquisition. It works at nighttime with controll...

Assessment of Recycling Tunnel Sprayers Applied in Mediterranean Vineyards and Apple Orchards

Voltammetric measurement of microorganism populations

A voltammetric biosensor was developed for the assay of microorganism populations. A tetracycline-modified glassy carbon electrode was used in the construction of the biosensor and an electrochemical cell with an elastic base was employed in the measurement. The possible mechanism of the electrode response was discussed. The determination limit of the microbial populations was 2–5 × 104 cells w...