1. A method for recognizing individual plants of a selected type growing in a field, said method comprising: providing, to a data processing system of an automated plant counting system, a location of each of a plurality of rows of plants of a selected type growing within a field; capturing color image data and near infrared (NIR) image data of the entire field having the plants of the selected type growing therein utilizing the automated plant counting system; calculating a ratio value between each pixel of the color image data and the corresponding pixel of the NIR image data utilizing a plant recognition algorithm executed via the data processing system; generating, via execution of the plant recognition algorithm, a false color image of the field based on the calculated ratios for each pixel; identifying, via execution of the plant recognition algorithm, a location of each of a plurality of plants in the false color image by identifying all locations in the false color image that indicate a plant whorl that is uniquely rendered in the false color image for locations in the field having a chlorophyll density level above a predetermined threshold; and counting the number of plants of the selected type growing in the field by comparing the identified plant locations with the provided row locations such that only the plants located within provided row locations of the field are counted as plants of the selected type.