Durum wheat yield prediction at flowering stage for late N management

Abstract

Managing late N application effectively in durum wheat is important to reach desirable protein content. Yield prediction at anathesis is needed to estimate N requirement for the crop and N application rate. In this project, we use canopy reflectance and image processing, measured at anthesis, to estimate yield at harvest. Our results of the growing season 2009-2010 suggested that the canopy reflectance index ‘NWI-4’ and the spike pixel size obtained from image processing at anthesis are potential approaches to predict durum wheat yield at harvest. The final goal of this research is to find a simple and rapid method to manage late N fertilizer to reach desirable grain protein content.