Multispectral aerial images for the evaluation of maize crops

ABSTRACT The combination of multispectral aerial images and computational processing is emerging as one of the solutions used in precision agriculture to observe the nutritional status of plants. The objective of this study is therefore to associate the nitrogen content and dry weight of the aerial part of maize plants (DW) with the vegetation indices obtained by multispectral aerial images (NDVIA and NDREA), and with the SPAD index and the Greenseeker NDVI, in the vegetative stage V6. To this end, randomized blocks in a factorial scheme of 6x4 (six nitrogen doses at the base and four different flight altitudes) were used, with three replications. The collected data was submitted to ANOVA with the F test (p = 0,05) and subsequent regression analysis. The study showed that it is possible to estimate the dry weight of the aerial part of maize plants and the nitrogen content in the leaves through the processing of multispectral aerial images, using the NDVI and NDRE spectral vegetation indices. The portable chlorophyll meter SPAD (model SPAD-502) also had promissing results in the estimation of nitrogen content, while the Greenseeker NDVI sensor accurately estimated nitrogen content and dry weight.