Plant Growth Monitoring Using Thermography -Analysis of nutrient stress-

열영상을 이용한 작물 생장 감시 -영양분 스트레스 분석-

Automated greenhouse production system often require crop growth monitoring involving accurate quantification of plant physiological properties. Conventional methods are usually burdensome, inaccurate, and harmful to crops. A thermal image analysis system can accomplish rapid and accurate measurements of physiological-property changes of stressed crops. In this research a thermal imaging system was used to measure the leaf-temperature changes of several crops according to nutrient stresses. Thermal images were obtained from lettuce, cucumber, and pepper plants. Plants were placed in growth chamber to provide relatively constant growth environment. Results showed that there were significant differences in the temperature of stressed plants and non-stressed plants. In a case of the both N deficiency and excess, the leaf temperatures of cucumber were $2^{\circ}C$ lower than controlled temperature. The leaf temperature of cucumber was $2^{\circ}C$ lower than controlled temperature only when it was under N excess stress. For the potassium deficiency or excess stress, the leaf temperaures of cucumber and hot pepper were $2^{\circ}C$ lower than controls, respectively. The phosphorous deficiency stress dropped the leaf temperatures of cucumber and hot pepper $2^{\circ}C$ and $1.5^{\circ}C$ below than controls. However, the leaf temperature of lettuce did not change. It was possible to detect the changes in leaf temperature by infrared thermography when subjected to nutrition stress. Since the changes in leaf temperatures were different each other for plants and kinds of stresses, however, it is necessary to add a nutrient measurement system to a plant-growth monitoring system using thermography.