Assessment of Vineyard Canopy Porosity Using Machine Vision
- María Paz Diago Santamaría 1
- Mark Krasnow 2
- Marijan Bubola 3
- Borja Millán Prior 1
- Javier Tardáguila Laso 1
- 1 Instituto de Ciencias de la Vid y del Vino ,University of La Rioja
- 2 Culinary Institute of America
- 3 Institute of Agriculture and Tourism, Poreč, Croatia
ISSN: 0002-9254
Año de publicación: 2016
Volumen: 67
Número: 2
Páginas: 229-238
Tipo: Artículo
Otras publicaciones en: American Journal of Enology and Viticulture
Resumen
Canopy porosity is an important viticultural factor because canopy gaps favor fruit exposure and air circulation, both of which benefit fruit quality and health. Point quadrat analysis (PQA) is standard for assessing canopy gaps but has limited utility because the method is laborious and time consuming. A new, objective, noninvasive, image-based method was developed and compared with PQA to assess the percent canopy gaps in vineyards with diverse viticultural conditions and grape varieties in New Zealand, Croatia, and Spain. The determination coefficient (R2) of the regressions between the percent gaps using both methods exceeded 0.90 (p < 0.05) at each site, and R2 of the global regression was 0.93 (p < 0.05). The time of day and side of the canopy photographed did not significantly affect the performance of the algorithm. With this new image-based assessment method, canopy management may be optimized to configure a desired amount of canopy gaps and thereby improve fruit quality and health.