Remotely sensed and ground measurament to detect and classify weed infestation of Ecballium elaterium (common name: squirting cucumber) on two dates and in two naturally infested hedgerow olive orchards under no tillage

Ecballium elaterium (common name: squirting cucumber) is an emerging weed problem in hedgerow or superintensive olive groves under no tillage. It colonizes the inter-row area infesting the natural or sown cover crops, and is considered a hard-to-control weed. Research in other woody crops has shown E. elaterium has a patchy distribution, which makes this weed susceptible to design a site-specific control strategy only addressed to E. elaterium patches which would allow the design of efficient and minimal herbicide control protocol and a step forward in sustainable weed management. Therefore, the aim of this work was to develop a methodology based on the analysis of imagery acquired with an uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) to detect and map E. elaterium infestations in hedgerow olive orchards.