[Helios]

I recently saw an ad for plant stress detection glasses- they use a purple lens to help identify plant stress. Seems like they might come in handy sometimes. They don't tell you what the problem is... just that there is/may be a problem. Anyone have any experience with these? Clever idea or waste of time/money?

See:

http://www.forestry-suppliers.com/pr...ge.asp?mi=2058

[Stonehenge]

They claim the purple lenses block out the green color reflected from the chlorophyl, making anything other than green stand out.

I'm not 100% certain, but that sounds to me like it helps you to see whether something is turning yellow.

I can already see yellow without the glasses.

And what happens when the plant foliage is naturally a color other than green?

There might be more science to it than that, but it sounds kinda gimmicky to me.

[Helios]

I thought of those points, too. The glasses would be useless if the plant is supposed to be yellow, and there is no need for them if the stress is clearly visible. I guess I was wondering how useful they might be if viewing, for example, 100+ 3 gal. boxwoods at a nursery.... all of them look green & healthy, but would a purple filter show you any stress before it is obvious? Would they help narrow down your selection process? Would everyone laugh at you for wearing purple glasses and label you an idiot? Such are the urgent questions on a freezing cold Saturday afternoon in February....

[Fine Edge]

Purple glasses I would not wear.
They may get tangled in my hair.
I would not wear them in a box,
I would not wear them on a fox.
I do not like them, do you hear.
They make me look sorta queer.
That's my take on purple glasses.
I think they'll never be for the masses.

[familyguy]

we'll look like a bunch a asses.

[Greensmith]

And as we munch on those replacement fees.

We will wish we took a second look at those trees.

[Dale Wiley]

The majority of my work is on turf. I have a set of prescripition sunglasses that are polarized and had every opition on them I could get.

They will show stressed areas in turf a bit prior to it becoming a problem and allow us to deal with it.

Run a search on turf tec and you will find a bunch of cool diagnostic tools. I will post the actual URL if I can find the catalog.

[cutntrim]

A former employee of mine said that when he worked for a lawn care company previously, they issued them sunglasses that made it easier to spot crabgrass in turf. Showed up bright green I think, so they could spot it easier when it was in its early stages of development.

[Helios]

There is some science to this... I thought I would post a couple links, including one which has some interesting DIY alternatives...

From the University of New Hampshire:
http://mvh.sr.unh.edu/mvhtools/psd_filters.htm

NASA has looked into this as well:
http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/spinoff1996/50.html

The Turf Tec site Dale mentioned:
http://www.turf-tec.com/catalog-n.html#TSDG1-N

Maybe wearing purple shades is not such a silly idea after all...

[Cochran]

I have used the plant stress glasses in the past--I used to work at a large wholesale nursery as a grower and my boss thought it would be "neat" for his growers to have a pair of plant stress glasses. Of what I remeber, they really didn't show me anything I couldn't already see through my polarized sunglass lenses. This has been a few years ago, and possibly advancements have been made, but in my opinion a good eye and even a good pair of polarized sunglasses is what you need.

I don't think they're necessarily a "gimmick", but I don't believe they're the next amazing thing for the green industry, either.

[mdvaden]

Did you folks ever see the movie

"THEY LIVE" ?

[Dale Wiley]

Originally posted by mdvaden
Did you folks ever see the movie

"THEY LIVE" ?

No... but I remember about 100 years ago there was a kiddy show called Romper Room, and the gal had these really cool glasses she could put on and see right into your TV and tell you what you had been doing ...

[BuenPatron]

If anybody still cares...

I wear a pair of cheapie "Blue Blockers." Got 'em at one of those roadside tents for 15 bucks. They make lawns look brown where there's heat stress, tire marks, weeds and crap. Remember to take 'em off before you go and overwater.