Silver Damage
Detecting Thrips damage on strawberry plants
Silver damage is a result of thrips that eat the plant. These little insects are a plague in several crops, including strawberry. Treatment of thrips is becoming more difficult due to strict regulation concerning use of chemical pesticides. Strawberry growers are therefore waiting for new cultivars that are less sensitive for harmful effects of thrips. Currently there is a lack of useful methods for objective determination of thrips damage. In this project, a measurement methods has been developed to measure silver damage on strawberry plants.
Camera
The leaves reveal light silver-colored spots on places where thrips has ‘eaten’ leaves. These spots are hard to identify for the human eye, yet they can be accurately measured by a camera. De yellow edges on the picture indicate where silver damage has been detected by the camera.