Advancements in deep learning for accurate classification of grape leaves and diagnosis of grape diseases

Abstract Plant diseases cause significant agricultural losses, demanding accurate detection methods. Traditional approaches relying on expert knowledge may be biased, but advancements in computing, particularly deep learning, offer non-experts effective tools. This study focuses on fine-tuning cutting-edge pre-trained CNN and vision transformer models to classify grape leaves and diagnose grape leaf diseases through digital images. Our research examined a PlantVillage dataset, which comprises 4062 leaf images distributed across four categories. Additionally, we utilized the Grapevine dataset, consisting of 500 leaf images. This dataset is organized into five distinct groups, with each group containing 100 images corresponding to one of the five grape types. The PlantVillage dataset focuses on four classes related to grape diseases, namely Black Rot, Leaf Blight, Healthy, and Esca leaves. On the other hand, the Grapevine dataset includes five classes for leaf recognition, specifically Ak, Alaidris, Buzgulu, Dimnit, and Nazli. In experiments with 14 CNN and 17 vision transformer models, deep learning demonstrated high accuracy in distinguishing grape diseases and recognizing leaves. Notably, four models achieved 100% accuracy on PlantVillage and Grapevine datasets, with Swinv2-Base standing out. This approach holds promise for enhancing crop productivity through early disease detection and providing insights into grape variety characterization in agriculture.