Vegetation Indices Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle to Monitor Plant-level Tomato Plant Height under Till and No-till Farming Conditions

Abstract

Precise plant height (PH) estimation is consequential for precision farming. However, few studies have estimated tomato PH at the plant level using multi-spectral reflectance data obtained from unmanned aerial vehicle. In this study, 14 vegetation indices were compared for estimating tomato PH at the plant level under till and no-till conditions. Results showed good performance for predicting PH was observed for: Infrared Percentage Vegetation Index and Transformed Vegetation Index under till treatment; and Green Normalized Difference Vegetation Index and Weighted Difference Vegetation Index under notill treatment. In addition, all vegetation indices except for some indices under no-till treatment had lower performance for estimating PH as compared with those under till treatment due to soil background effects and presence of weeds.