GROWTH CONDITION DIAGNOSTIC APPARATUS AND GROWTH CONDITION DIAGNOSTIC METHOD FOR PLANTS

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To diagnose growth conditions of the underground part of a plant without drawing out the underground part from the cultivation medium without damaging the underground part.SOLUTION: A growing condition diagnostic apparatus 1 comprises: a transmitting antenna 22 which transmits a microwave 20; a receiving antenna 24 which receives the microwave 20; a network analyzer 10 which acquires the signal strength of the microwave 20 transmitted from the transmitting antenna 22 and received by the receiving antenna 24 as a target signal strength, in the state that a soil 40 in which a root 30 are present between the transmitting antenna 22 and the receiving antenna 24 is arranged, as well as acquires the signal strength of the microwave 20 transmitted from the transmitting antenna 22 and received by the receiving antenna 24 as a reference signal strength, in the state that the soil 40 in which the root 30 is not present between the transmitting antenna 22 and the receiving antenna 24 is arranged; and an arithmetic unit 11 which calculates the difference between the target signal strength and the reference signal strength, and acquires the size of the root 30 on the basis of the difference.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1