A method of real-time plant selection and removal in a plant field with a machine having a plant removal mechanism, as the machine travels in a first direction along crop rows, the plant field including parallel crop rows, the machine including a camera having a fixed angle of view and the plant removal mechanism statically coupled a distance away from the camera, the method implementing a sequence of steps comprising: • capturing a first image of a first section of the plant field with the camera, the first image including at least one group of contiguous plants, contiguous plants being plants in contact with each other or partially occluding each other, within the first section; • identifying a foreground region containing a first and a second plant, the first and second plant being one of the groups of contiguous plants; • identifying a first and a second point of interest within the foreground region (S120), the first and the second point of interest being a plant center of the first and second plant, respectively, wherein the plant center is a region of the plant from which upper leaves of the plant extend; • segmenting the foreground region into a first and a second sub-region (S130, S140), the first sub-region encompassing the first point of interest identified as a plant center of the first plant and the second sub-region encompassing the second point of interest identified as a plant center of the second plant, wherein the plant centers are identified before segmenting into the sub-regions; • selecting one of the sub-regions for retention (S200) from the first image through a cost or utility function optimization that selects plants for retention based on intra-row and inter-row distances in the selected sub-region; and • removing the plants corresponding to the unselected sub-region within the first image with the plant removal mechanism. • capturing a first image of a first section of the plant field with the camera, the first image including at least one group of contiguous plants, contiguous plants being plants in contact with each other or partially occluding each other, within the first section; • identifying a foreground region containing a first and a second plant, the first and second plant being one of the groups of contiguous plants; • identifying a first and a second point of interest within the foreground region (S120), the first and the second point of interest being a plant center of the first and second plant, respectively, wherein the plant center is a region of the plant from which upper leaves of the plant extend; • segmenting the foreground region into a first and a second sub-region (S130, S140), the first sub-region encompassing the first point of interest identified as a plant center of the first plant and the second sub-region encompassing the second point of interest identified as a plant center of the second plant, wherein the plant centers are identified before segmenting into the sub-regions; • selecting one of the sub-regions for retention (S200) from the first image through a cost or utility function optimization that selects plants for retention based on intra-row and inter-row distances in the selected sub-region; and • removing the plants corresponding to the unselected sub-region within the first image with the plant removal mechanism. <EOS>