Adding nitrogen fertilizer is believed to benefit the soil by building organic carbon, but University of Illinois soil scientists have overturned this central tenet of the agricultural revolution. Their findings, published in theJournal of Environmental Quality, are based on analyses of soil samples from the Morrow Plots – America’s oldest experimental field – that date […]
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Crop Diagnosis With Polarized Light
Researchers have uncovered a picture of plant health that is invisible to the naked eye by using rapid pulses of polarized light. The portable light source and detector can reveal over- or under-fertilization, crop-nutrient levels, and perhaps even disease. The tractor-mountable system works on corn, spinach and other crops by picking out minute differences in […]