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Title: EVALUATION OF HERBICIDE-BASED COTTON REGROWTH CONTROL USING REMOTE SENSING

Author
item YANG, CHENGHAI - 6204-05-25
item GREENBERG, SHOIL - 6202-40-05
item Everitt, James

Submitted to: Transactions of the ASAE
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/1/2005
Publication Date: 12/5/2005
Citation: Yang, C., Greenberg, S.M., Everitt, J.H. 2005. Evaluation of herbicide-based cotton regrowth control using remote sensing. Transactions of the ASAE. 48(5):1987-1994.

Interpretive Summary: Traditional methods for evaluating herbicide-based cotton regrowth control for stalk destruction are based on visual observations and ground measurements. This paper presents how reflectance spectra and airborne imagery can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of different cotton regrowth control treatments. Ground reflectance data were able to visually separate regrowth differences among the treatments and airborne digital imagery allowed quantitative separations among the treatments. These results indicate that remote sensing can be a useful tool for evaluating the effectiveness of herbicide-based cotton regrowth control for stalk destruction.

Technical Abstract: Post-harvest destruction of cotton stalks is an important cultural practice for managing overwintering boll weevils and other insect pests such as the silverleaf whitefly and the pink bollworm. A field experiment was conducted to examine the usefulness of remote sensing technology for evaluating herbicide-based regrowth control for cotton stalk destruction. Ten treatments (one control and nine combinations of three herbicide mixtures and three application timings) were assigned to 30 shredded cotton plots according to a randomized complete block design in a south Texas cotton field in 2002. Ground reflectance spectra were collected on randomly selected sites from each plot. Meanwhile, airborne multispectral digital imagery was obtained from the field, and plant regrowth was visually rated at five different levels ranging from no live plants to mostly healthy plants based on ground observations. The reflectance spectra were able to visually separate regrowth differences among the treatments. Although the airborne imagery did not provide sufficient visual differentiation among the treatments, the spectral information extracted from the imagery allowed quantitative separations among the treatments. Seven spectral variables, including the green, red, and near-infrared bands of the multispectral imagery and four vegetation indices derived from the three bands, were used to compare the differences among the treatments. Multiple comparisons showed that the red band and the four vegetation indices detected significant differences among the treatments as detected by the visual rating method. These results indicate that remote sensing can be a useful tool for evaluating herbicide-based regrowth control strategies for cotton stalk destruction.