Monitoring the growth of fruit vegetables is essential for the automation of cultivation management, and harvest. The objective of this study is to demonstrate that the current sensor technology can monitor the growth and yield of fruit vegetables such as tomato, cucumber, and paprika. We estimated leaf area, leaf area index (LAI), and plant height using coordinates of polygon vertices from plant and canopy surface models constructed using a three-dimensional (3D) scanner. A significant correlation was observed between the measured and estimated leaf area, LAI, and plant height (R² > 0.8, except for tomato LAI). The canopy structure of each fruit vegetable was predicted by integrating the estimated leaf area at each height of the canopy surface models. A linear relationship was observed between the measured total leaf area and the total dry weight of each fruit vegetable; thus, the dry weight of the plant can be predicted using the estimated leaf area. The fruit weights of tomato and paprika were estimated using the fruit solid model constructed by the fruit point cloud data extracted using the RGB value. A significant correlation was observed between the measured and estimated fruit weights (tomato: R² = 0.739, paprika: R² = 0.888). Therefore, it was possible to estimate the growth parameters (leaf area, plant height, canopy structure, and yield) of different fruit vegetables non-destructively using a 3D scanner.

The objective of this study was to investigate the growth and light-intercepting characteristics of tomatoes when movable benches are used in their cultivation. We cultivated tomatoes in a greenhouse (168 m²) during summer (9 July–9 September 2018) under different furrow distances (F1.0 = 1.0 m and F1.6 = 1.6 m) and movable benches (M indicates that the furrow distance = 0.4–0.8 m). Compared to the other treatments, when the movable bench was used to the change furrow distance depending on the plant growth stage (M treatment), the percentage of canopy light interception increased to ~90% at the early stage of plant growth (~20 days after transplanting). The percentage of canopy light interception for different treatments increased in the order of M > F1.0 > F1.6, and it increased towards the end of cultivation. In addition, the yield per unit area exhibited the same trend. Therefore, the solar radiation inside a greenhouse can be efficiently intercepted by plants when movable benches are used. This indicated that it was possible to increase plant yield per unit area using movable benches in plant cultivation.