Applications of Spectral Reflectance Techniques in Northern European Cereal Production: A Review

It is concluded that spectral reflectance techniques are unlikely to be used for measuring soil properties as other technologies are better suited to this application. Spectral reflectance techniques can be used to detect weeds against a soil background but with current approaches cannot reliably identify weeds at sufficiently low populations (plants m−2) in a growing crop to control commercial herbicide applications. Spectral reflectance techniques also provide useful information about the crop canopy that can be used as a component in determining the fungicide, growth regulator and nitrogen inputs to a cereal crop.