Fig. 11

Plant line selection and harvesting time. a–c Multiple traits can be used for plant line selection, including a digital biomass, b height, and c light penetration. The lines (from line #1 to line #6) would be compared to a reference line to select the lines with required phenotypes. The plant lines with purple background were the selected lines. For example, a line #6 was selected because of its largest digital biomass. b Based on the height, line #2 with the shortest stem was selected. c In the light penetration trait, light remained the most after penetrating through the leaves of line #5, so line #5 was selected. d, e During d the plant growth period, e the plant biomass would enlarge throughout the growing stage. When the plants reach their harvesting point (purple dashed box), the biomass would no longer increase. If the plants are not harvested after this harvesting point (purple dashed box), extra labor (orange dashed box) would increase the cost and decrease the farming efficiency