ABSTRACT

Cotton was grown under three irrigation levels in 2002 and four irrigation levels in 2003 using subsurface drip irrigation. Multi-spectral reflectance measurements made periodically in both years were related to periodic biomass, leaf water potential measurements and final lint yield. Reflectance measurements were made with a hand-held CROPSCAN radiometer equipped with sensors that measured radiation in 16 wavelengths. The objective of this study was to determine the level of correlation of multi-spectral reflectance of cotton with leaf water potential, leaf area, and final yield. After an analysis that included the plotting of all bands for all measurement dates in both years high correlation was observed between several bands. Seven uncorrelated bands were selected to correlate with leaf water potential (LWP), leaf area index (LAI), and final lint yield. Among the individual bands wave lengths of 750 nm and 880 nm were highly correlated with LWP, LAI, and lint yield. The highest correlation with LWP and LAI was R²= 0.80. The highest R² values for final lint yield were between 0.7 and 0.8, which tended to increase as measurement date approached the time of crop maturity in 2003. Reflectance correlations in band 660 nm with final lint yield reached R² values between 0.55 and 0.75. The highest NDVI(880,660) values were 0.70 with LWP in 2003, LAI was 0.75 in 2003, and lint yield reached 0.60 and 0.75 in 2002 and 2003, respectively. While reflectance was significantly correlated with each of the canopy factors, higher precision would be needed to replace measurement of the canopy factors with spectrally-based estimates.