RE SEARCH Speedy plant monitoring with new camera technology Leaves are cut from each plant that Wageningen University’s Plant Breeding department has examined so far. These are infected with Phytophthora spores, after which they are examined one by one. With the naked eye or with a sliding calliper, we determine the speed of the development of the lesion. This is research that you need to repeat constantly. It is time-consuming and therefore expensive. The research itself needs research to be able to make this work faster and more efficient. An example of research for which new instruments have become available, is the monitoring of the quality of plants. Many researchers in Wageningen assess the progression of pests and diseases in plants with the naked eye. If researchers Henk Jalink and Rob van de Schoor could have their way, this will very soon be a thing of the past, for they have developed a camera that can record and present the course of photosynthesis in plants. They explain how the camera works on the basis of a trial run. Recording photosynthesis ‘This is a camera that has been especially developed to assess the quality of plants. By using it, we can, among other things, immediately determine to what extent plants show stress from plant protection chemicals such as herbicides’, Jalink shows us. But it is also possible to map out the development of diseases such as Phytophthora. How does it work? If you irradiate a plant with a certain type of light, the chlorophyll itself radiates a different type of light. What we see here is, in fact, a matter of different wavelengths. Spots without any activity (photosynthesis) in the leaf will not radiate light. That is what the camera detects and what is subsequently shown in the 20 Potato World 2011 • number 2 Pagina 19
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