Smart Threshold: X-ray CT adapts apple segmentation across 12 cultivars

A new study in Smart Agricultural Technology uses X-ray computed tomography (CT) to better separate two drivers of apple quality that are usually treated as inseparable: cultivar genetics and preharvest crop management. The paper notes that fixed CT segmentation parameters—often calibrated for a single cultivar—can create systematic errors when tissue density varies across genetically diverse apples, weakening the reliability of derived quality metrics. Led by Weiqun Wang of McGill University, the researchers designed a dual-batch experiment with 36 apples from 12 cultivars grown under identical conditions at the McGill University Macdonald Campus orchard, plus a controlled crop-load trial. The goal is to profile the same CT features across both genetic diversity and management variation.