Application of red edge variables in winter wheat nutrition diagnosis

Remote sensing offers the potential to determine rapidly the physiological condition of crop over large areas. Canopy reflectance data selected at key growth stages of winter wheat were analyzed. It indicated that winter wheat growth phonological changes can be evaluated by red edge variables (REV) characteristics. Regression equations between chlorophyll concentration, nitrogen concentration, soluble sugar were established, prediction of foliar soluble sugar and chlorophyll concentration by red edge position, foliar nitrogen concentration by the amplitude of red edge, starch concentration by the near infrared plateau, leaf area index by the area of red edge peak are successful and feasible. For this purpose red edge variables can play a vital role in providing time-specific and time-critical information for precision farming, due to their capabilities in measuring canopy spectrum variability.