RESEARCH & EVENTS
KC and the sunshine( band) – permanently installed cameras to measure almond canopy size and better estimate irrigation requirements
Mark Skewes 1, 2, 3, Dane Thomas 1, 3, Nigel Fleming 1, 2, 3, Kavitha Shanmugam 1, Vinod Phogat 1, 2, 3, Darren Graetz 1, Paul Petrie 1, 2, 3 and Tim Pitt 1, 2, 3
1
South Australian Research and Development Institute( SARDI), Adelaide, SA, Australia
2
College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, Bedford Park, SA, Australia
3
School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, University of Adelaide, Urrbrae, SA, Australia
THIS article summarises part of a paper presented by Mark Skewes at the XIII International Symposium on Integrating Canopy, Rootstock and Environmental Physiology in Orchard Systems, in Napier, New Zealand in January 2025.
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INTRODUCTION Inefficient irrigation scheduling may result in either under or over irrigation, in turn resulting in poor tree growth, lower yields and waste of water and other resources such as fertilisers. Estimation of irrigation requirements using evapotranspiration and crop coefficients is widely adopted in the almond industry. However, the industry is undergoing significant change, particularly through the introduction of new varieties and rootstocks, and increased tree densities, resulting in altered tree growth habits and uncertainty around tree irrigation requirements. In addition, there is an opportunity to link tree canopy monitoring with irrigation advisory software to assist almond growers to manage irrigation more effectively. This project demonstrated the ability of under-canopy camera systems to estimate seasonal variation in canopy size and crop coefficient in a range of almond production systems( including different varieties, growth habits / management systems and tree densities).
METHODOLOGY Almond trees at the ACE orchard comprising multiple ages, densities, genotypes and training systems were
In A Nutshell- Autumn 2025 Vol 26 Issue 1
Figure 1. Example RGB imagery from under-canopy timelapse camera( a) and the binary( blue channel) output( b) that informed daily calculations of leaf area index.
selected for assessment of canopy size using permanently installed, high resolution, timelapse cameras( GERBER Trail Camera, 4G MMS). Cameras were installed in a security box approximately 1m south of the trunk and in-line with the planted row, with the lens pointed vertically up through the canopy toward the sky. Cameras were programmed to collect one image