On the designing method for express assessment of the state of winter crops in the process of their overwintering

Abstract

Winter crops, having high yields in comparison with spring crops, determine the overall grain harvest, thereby providing significant contribution to strengthening the country's food security. But at the same time, climatic metamorphoses of recent years seriously affect the preliminary forecast of the amount of collected products and its final result. Therefore, the problem of current control over the safety of cereals cultivated using the technology of winter sowing is very acute today. The review of existing control methods in the autumn-winter-spring period shows that almost all methods are laborious, time-consuming, many are the result of a visual subjective assessment, there is no possibility of express assessment of the state of plants in the place where cultivated crops grow. Analysis of the mechanism of intracellular processes under plant tissue exposure to negative temperature allows saying that intracellular changes occur in it, leading to a change in the electrical conductivity of the "intercellular substance and cell contents" solution. Based on the already used methods for assessing the physiological state of plants by measuring the resistance of plant tissue, it was decided to use the same approach to create algorithm for the functioning and technical means for monitoring the winter hardiness of cultivated crops. Conducted studies have shown that the electrical resistance of plant tissue has a systematically repeating nonlinear character during freezing and thawing during measurement. Resistance measurements must be carried out at different frequencies, but due to the limited capabilities of measuring instruments to measure the high resistance of plant tissue, preference should be given to frequencies from 0.5 kHz and higher.