Agricola Famosa
Melon necrotic spots
The Yellow Honeydew melon can develop brown necrotic spots as consequence of growth, cooling and tranportation conditions. Within this project we investigated how these develop and whether they can be detected in an early stage. Several different imaging techniques were tested in the Netherlands and on-site in Brasil. The imaging techniques developed make it possible to remove these melons from the sorting line. The client, Agricola Famosa, is the world’s biggest melon producer with 8000 ha of melons. They are highly interested in technology that improves the sorting process.
Detection methods
The following detection methods have been testes: spectroscopy, multi-spectral imaging, chlorophyll fluorescence and color imaging. For the fluorescence set-up we developed shielding to avoid influences from environmental lighting. The measurement clearly showed when a melon contained little chlorophyll, typically at the location where the melon touched the soil, where little sunlight was present.
Results
In the following photo series you can find examples of detection results. One can observe that ‘netting’ edges are easy to spot on the melon. Furthermore, there is a picture showing the detection of brown spots in the infrared.