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

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.