High-throughput phenotyping early plant vigour of winter wheat

• High-throughput phenotyping of many individual genotypes in the field has a high potential to accelerate and improve the breeding process by replacing visual scoring of various traits.
• A high-throughput method for scoring plant stand density was developed using spectral reflectance.
• The rapidity and accuracy of this novel method may improve the breeding process at early growth stages.

In contrast to high-throughput genotyping which can manage a large number of plants at relatively low cost, phenotyping of many individual genotypes in field trials is still laborious and expensive. Early plant vigour, as an early selection criterion, is a trait that is visually scored due to a lack of suitable phenotyping methods for an accurate detection of this trait in large field trials. A high-throughput phenotyping technique for scoring early plant vigour would enhance the breeding process. This study was conducted to develop a method for scoring phenotypic differences in early plant vigour of 50 winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars in a 2-years experiment using a vehicle based multispectral active sensor and two commercially available active sensors, GreenSeeker and CropCircle. Pixel analysis of RGB images revealed to be the most feasible and superior method compared to other possible reference methods. A comparison between the two years 2011 and 2012 confirmed that early plant vigour was affected by genotypic differences. A novel spectral plant vigour index (EPVI) was found to accurately reflect the plant vigour at tillering. Different methods were applied to identify optimal combinations of wavelengths to predict early plant vigour, including multivariate modelling and prediction, contour maps for identifying all possible simple ratios and testing of combined indices. The EPVI and the relative amount of green pixels (RAGP) derived from digital images were significantly related with r2 = 0.98 to each other in both years. A total of 200 plots, 12 m in length, could be measured within 75 min. The EPVI was shown to be an accurate scoring method for the high-throughput screening of large field trials. The rapidity and accuracy of this novel method may contribute to enhanced selection at early growth stages.