ELONCAM, a new instrument for automated and individualized monitoring of seedling development

Abstract

Seed germination and seedling growth are essential steps for field emergence. Speed, germination homogeneity and growth are therefore important parameters to assess seed vigor or to characterize genetic diversity under various seeding conditions. The ELONCAM vision system is aimed at contributing to the automated phenotyping of seeds and seedlings. It allows determining germination capacity and growth rate of different genotypes to evaluate their physiological traits in a wide range of conditions. It is an imaging system consisting of two cameras placed one above the other and fixed on a sliding arm in a climatic chamber. The cameras move on an automated rail connected to the computer-controlled image acquisition system. The acquisition of seedling images during the heterotrophic growth phase is done under green light. After image acquisition, image processing is performed to obtain the germination time for each seed and the growth kinetics of the aerial and root parts of the seedlings studied.