Evaluation of Organic Camelina Crop Under Different Tillage Systems and Fertilization Types Using Proximal Remote Sensing

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted in Southern Greece to assess Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Red-Edge Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDRE) in estimating Camelina’s crop growth and yield parameters under different tillage systems (conventional and minimum tillage) and organic fertilization types (compost, vermicompost and untreated control). A proximal canopy sensor was used to measure the aforementioned Spectral Vegetation Indices (SVIs) at different days after sowing (DAS). Camelina presented the highest values of NDVI and NDRE under compost fertilization (0.63 and 0.22 accordingly) and minimum tillage system (0.50 and 0.18 accordingly). Additionally, the highest correlations between the measured crop parameters and NDVI, NDRE were achieved at leaf development to early flowering stage. Moreover, NDRE presented the highest correlation with seed yield (R2=0.60, p<0.05) and thus it is suggested for estimating Camelina’s productivity instead of NDVI. Finally, further research is needed for adopting the use of remote sensing technologies on predicting Camelina’s crop growth and yield.