The Stalker: An open source force meter for rapid stalk strength phenotyping

Abstract Plant breeding programs use easily measured traits to determine plant selection for the next cycle of testing. Often ratings (1-10) are used for generalized biomechanical properties such as lodging, the act of a plant falling over due to environmental conditions. In order to create a more repeatable means of scoring lodging (bending) susceptibility, the Stalker was conceived as a device that could create repeatable and time efficient outputs independent of operator bias by quantifying stalk strength as a proxy for lodging resistance.