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Design and Implementation of a Low-Cost Chlorophyll Content Meter

Authors :
Zacharias Kamarianakis
Spyros Panagiotakis
Source :
Sensors, Vol 23, Iss 5, p 2699 (2023)
Publication Year :
2023
Publisher :
MDPI AG, 2023.

Abstract

Chlorophyll meters are portable devices used to assess and improve plants’ nitrogen management and to help farmers in the determination of the health condition of plants through leaf greenness measurements. These optical electronic instruments can provide an assessment of chlorophyll content by measuring the light passing through a leaf or by measuring the light radiation reflected from its surface. However, independently of the main principle of operation and use (e.g., absorbance vs. reflectance measurements), commercial chlorophyll meters usually cost hundreds or even thousands of euros, making them inaccessible to growers and ordinary citizens who are interested in self-cultivation, farmers, crop researchers, and communities lacking resources in general. A low-cost chlorophyll meter based on light-to-voltage measurements of the remaining light after two LED light emissions through a leaf is designed, constructed, evaluated, and compared against two well-known commercial chlorophyll meters, the SPAD-502 and the atLeaf CHL Plus. Initial tests of the proposed device on lemon tree leaves and on young Brussels sprouts plant leaves revealed promising results compared to the commercial instruments. The coefficient of determination, R2, was estimated to be 0.9767 for the SPAD-502 and 0.9898 for the atLeaf-meter in lemon tree leaves samples compared to the proposed device, while for the Brussels sprouts plant, R2 was estimated to be 0.9506 and 0.9624, respectively. Further tests conducted as a preliminary evaluation of the proposed device are also presented.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
14248220
Volume :
23
Issue :
5
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
Sensors
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.f54192bf6c9c4fd79990beca81035344
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.3390/s23052699