1. A method for recognizing individual plants of a selected type growing in a field, said method comprising: capturing color image data and near infrared (NIR) image data of an entire field having plants of a selected type growing therein utilizing an 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 a data processing system of the plant counting system; generating, via execution of the plant recognition algorithm, a false color image of the field based on the calculated ratios for each pixel; and identifying, via execution of the plant recognition algorithm, all plants of the selected type in the false color image based on a plant distinguishing characteristic uniquely rendered for each individual plant of the selected type in the false color image.