Plant Count and Emergence for Trial Field
1. Description
Plant Count and Emergence is an analytics that automatically determines the plant count and emergence for rows of crops in field trials. Let's run through how it works.
2. Inputs
In order to properly run the analytic, you need to provide the below inputs and parameters:
| Required | Definition |
| Scouting Maps |
|
| Inter-plants spacing | Theoretical interplant spacing (within the row) It is mandatory to see the bare ground between two plants on the map |
| Microplots vector | Vector file containing microplot boundaries |
| Optional | Definition |
| Row vectorization | Vector file containing the digitized rows (if already available). |
| Deliverables suffix | A suffix applied to all deliverable names |
3. Workflow
Step 1 - Within a survey, choose the "Plant count and emergence" analytic
Step 2 - Click on "LAUNCH".
Step 3 - When you enter the analytic page, select the Scouting Map that you will use to run the counting (1).
Step 4 - Select the Microplot vector that will be used (2),
Step 5 - Select the vectorized rows if applicable (3). Otherwise, this operation is done automatically.
Step 6 - Select "NEXT STEP".
Step 7 - On the parameters page, fill in the inter-plants spacing section, i.e. the distance between two plants within the same row.
Note: The value is in meters.
Step 8 - Input a suffix for the deliverables (optional). For example: "_cropA" outputs "Plant count_cropA.geojson", and click on "LAUNCH PLANT COUNT AND EMERGENCE".
Tips: You can also indicate here the inter-plant spacing parameter in case you launch the analytic several times with different inter-plant spacings.
4. Results
From the layers panel, display the "Inventory" folder from the "Survey Data" section, and display the plant count or gaps layers.
- If you display the "Gap" layer, it is better to also display the RGB map to identify where the gaps are located. Gaps are represented by small dots, and their color depends on the gap length. Refer to the "Legend" for color/distance definitions.
In addition, selecting the dot will also display the gap length and further attributes.
- If you display the plant count layer, the microplots appear. The microplots will also be colored depending on the selected attribute and its corresponding values.
You can click on one microplot to display its plant number and other attributes.
5. Deliverables
Once the analytics is run, the deliverables can be exported in two standard formats, vector format such as "geoJSON," and "CSV".
List of attributes for each format:
| Deliverable | File Format | Attributes |
|---|---|---|
| Gaps |
geoJSON CSV |
The "gaps" deliverable is only for plants in rows with the following attributes:
|
| Rows with plant count |
geoJSON CSV |
|
| Plant count |
geoJSON CSV |
|
6. Quality check the results
This section allows identifying potential anomalies on your trial plots.
6.1 Check the "anomaly" attribute
In a plant count vector output, click on a plot to see if there is an anomaly for that given plot. Or extract the CSV file to see a report of the anomalies for all plots.
6.2 Check the "theoretical_plant_count" attribute
In the plant count vector output, if the values are very different from your theoretical plant count, there is probably an anomaly.
6.3 Check the microplot coregistration
If the plot contour isn't well located around the plants, the results can be impacted. Use a scouting map (like NDVI) in the background to better identify the plant rows and make corrective actions.
The example below shows an overlay of microplots on a plant row. The plants present in this row are therefore difficult to count, which affects the results delivered.
