Abstract
Sorghum is an important cereal crop grown across the globe for its grain
and biomass value. It can also efficiently use resources such as
nitrogen, and multiple varieties that are nitrogen-use and light-capture
efficient are constantly being developed. This study focuses on using
the spectral signature of sorghum varieties to predict flowering days,
which could be used as a proxy for plants’ growth/productivity and
development trends, thus helping breeders make quick decisions about
what varieties to move to the next stage. Multiple sorghum varieties
from the sorghum association panel were planted in a replicate-design
field experiment with the variable supply of nitrogen. The flowering
days were monitored and recorded. The hyperspectral reflectance data
were collected and used to build a sorghum flowering days predictive
model. Although regression models such as partial least square have been
used to predict plants’ phenotypes, the non-parametric ensemble machine
learning model turned out to perform better on flowering days with an
accurate model up to 5 days.