Non-Invasive Examination of Plant Surfaces by Opto-Electronic Means—Using Russet as a Prime Example

Abstract

(1) Background: Many disorders and diseases of agricultural produce change the physical features of surfaces of plant organs; in terms of russet, e.g., of apple or pear, affected fruit peel becomes rough and brown in color, which is associated with changes in light reflection; (2) Objective and Methods: The objective of the present project was an interdisciplinary approach between horticultural science and engineering to examine two new innovative technologies as to their suitability for the non-destructive determination of surfaces of plant organs, using russet as an example, and (a) an industrial luster sensor (type CZ-H72, Keyence, Japan) and (b) a new type of a three-dimensional (3D) color microscope (VHX 5000); (3) Results: In the case of russet, i.e., suberinization of the fruit peel, peel roughness increased by ca. 2.5-fold from ca. 20 µm to ca. 50 µm on affected fruit sections when viewed at 200× magnification. Russeted peel showed significantly reduced luster, with smaller variation than russet-devoid peel with larger variation; (4) Conclusion: These results indicate that both sensors are suitable for biological material and their use for non-contact, non-invasive detection of surface disorders on agricultural produce such as russet may be a very powerful tool for many applications in agriculture and beyond in the future.

Plant phenotyping relevance

植物器官表面の状態（粗さ・光沢、さび症状）を非破壊・非接触で測定するセンサーおよび3D顕微鏡の適用性を検証しており、表現型取得手法が中心である。

Code and data availability

The article describes luster sensor and 3D color microscopy measurements of pear russet, but provides no public dataset, image repository, code, or model deposit. The only external URL in the text (diva-portal) is a cited reference on paperboard optics, unrelated to this paper's phenotyping data. The CC-BY license link

No evidence-backed public reproduction asset is currently recorded.