ISHS Acta Horticulturae 718: III International Symposium on Models for Plant Growth, Environmental Control and Farm Management in Protected Cultivation (HortiModel 2006)
3D ARCHITECTURAL MODELLING OF GREENHOUSE CUCUMBER (CUCUMIS SATIVUS L.) USING L-SYSTEMS |
| Author: | K. Kahlen |
| Keywords: | plant architecture, geometry, structural modelling, digitising, plant growth, logistic function, leaf area |
| Abstract:
Improving cultivation of cucumber is one goal of current greenhouse horticulture. There are many options to manage plant growth and environmental factors in a greenhouse, e.g. supplementary light can be given. Plant growth is a result of interacting canopy architecture, environmental factors and plant cultivation. As a first step towards virtual cucumber, the objective of this work was to develop a 3D architectural model of cucumber. Plants were digitised using a 3D digitiser in order to measure cucumber plant architecture non-destructively and growth functions of individual organs were derived from digitised data. A parametric L-system was used to construct a developmental structural model of cucumber. The model assumes that every 16.7°Cd an apex produces a phytomer and organ growth is logistic with thermal time. A defined plant manipulation regime was realised, e.g. vertical training was achieved by the initial apex orientation and the orientations of the internodes. Calculated geometric attributes such as leaf area were in good agreement with observations of plants grown under similar conditions. The comparison of the visual output of the simulated L-system with pictures and reconstructions of digitised plants revealed the overall accuracy of the plant model. Real plant architecture sagged due to fruit load. This aspect of plant cultivation was not modelled within the L-system. Nevertheless, the simulations produced realistic visualisations. The results indicated that it is possible to construct an accurate architectural model of cucumber. The presented model could be used to vary plant manipulation regimes. Coupling with a functional model is still missing, but highly desirable to improve the understanding of the relationships between plant architecture and plant growth and identify optimised plant manipulation regimes. | |
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