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- Author or Editor: D. A. Smittle x
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Nonterminal cuttings were taken just after leaf fall (November) from nongirdled shoots and from shoots girdled 7 weeks previously on `Flordaking', `Junegold', and `Harvester' peach trees [Prunus persica (L.) Batsch.]. Cuttings from nongirdled shoots rooted (85%) and survived (72%) better than did cuttings from girdled shoots on the same trees (64% rooting, 49% survival). Total sugar averaged across cultivars was 68 mg·g-1 dry weight in cuttings from nongirdled shoots and 82 mg·g-1 dry weight in cuttings from girdled shoots. Starch averaged 26 mg·g-1 dry weight and was independent of shoot girdling. `Flordaking' had the lowest starch concentration and the highest” percentage of cuttings that rooted and survived. Rooting and survival percentages differed by as much as 90% among trees within each cultivar.
Abstract
Mechanically harvested southernpeas (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp cv. Purple Hull Pink Eye lost substantial green color within 2 – 3 hours after harvest. Color loss was greater at higher temperature. Color changes were more closely related to O2, CO2, acetaldehyde and ethanol concentration in the load atmosphere than to endogenous ethylene concentrations. Solids and total sugar content decreased after harvest and were not affected by product temperature within the range studied. Flavor and off-flavor acceptability ratings were closely related to time from harvest, product temperature and load atmosphere O2 and CO2 concentrations, but were not closely associated with ethylene, acetaldehyde or ethanol concentrations.
Abstract
The disk, deep turn and rip-bed methods of land preparation resulted in soil strengths of 1000 kPa or greater at depths of 10, 28 and 18 cm, respectively. The disk and deep turn treatments produced a relatively uniform soil strength across the seed bed at all depths while the rip-bed treatment resulted in a channel of low strength soil under the row with relatively high soil strengths 15 cm to each side. Root growth generally followed the same pattern as soil strength. Shelled pea yield was greatest with the deep turn tillage method and lowest with the disk tillage method. The greater yield was due to a combination of a larger yield per plant and a slightly greater plant stand with the deep turn tillage method. Nutrient use efficiency as determined by total nutrient uptake by plants of the rip-bed and deep turn treatments was 40 and 50% greater than those from the disk treatment.
Abstract
Midshoot peach [Prunus persica (L.) Batsch.] leaves were collected in 1984 and 1985 from phony-diseased [presumably infected with Xylella fastidiosa (Wells et al.)] and healthy trees of several cultivars at intervals during the summer. Leaves were evaluated for specific chlorophyll content, specific leaf weight, and color (lightness, hue, and saturation). The darker green of diseased trees reported previously could not be attributed to the quantitative changes in the leaf characteristics measured in this study. Midshoot leaves from diseased trees were more yellow and less green than midshoot leaves from healthy trees.
Abstract
Seed of snap bean, Phaseolus vulgaris L. cv. Avalanche were separated into 3 length or 3 diameter groups and then each group separated into 3 classes based on aerodynamic properties. The grading procedure resulted in seed grades having large differences in physical characteristics, growth and yield responses. Yield response potential of snap bean was determined primarily by seed weight. A grading method utilizing size grading based on seed diameter followed by aspiration in a vertical air column was the most effective method of eliminating seed with low yield potential.
Abstract
Pepper (Capsicum frutescens L. cv. Hot Hungarian Yellow Wax) and polebeans (Phaseolus vulgaris L. cv. Dade) were grown in an intensive production system with film mulch, broad-spectrum soil fumigation and trickle irrigation. Nitrogen was applied through the trickle irrigation tubes at 0.56, 1.12, 2.24, and 4.48 kg/ha per day for the pepper and 0.56, 1.12, 2.24, and 3.36 kg/ha per day (doubled 6 weeks after seeding) for polebeans. Potassium was applied at 0.83 times the N rate. The N and K were applied twice weekly for the polebean and with every irrigation for the pepper. Marketable pepper yields ranged from 59.6 MT/ha with the low fertilizer rate to 96.0 MT/ha with high fertility. Yield increases with increasing fertilizer rates were not as great with polebeans as with peppers but there was a trend for higher yields with increasing fertilizer rates.
Abstract
Seed of 11 cultivars of snap bean, Phaseolus vulgaris L., were separated by aerodynamic properties in a vertical air column. Seed physical characteristics associated with air column separation were weight, density, volume, diameter, and length. The separation technique did not affect seed germination, seedling emergence, or plant survival at full expansion of the first trifoliate leaf growth stage. However, seed remaining in the air column after aspiration produced fewer weak plants and fewer plants with root rot at the first trifoliate leaf. These seed produced a greater plant stand, a greater pod weight per plant, a more uniform pod size distribution, and a greater yield at harvest than the seed removed. Yield from seed remaining after air column aspiration was 21% greater than from non-graded seed.
Yields of `Granex 33' and `Behairy' onions (Allium cepa) closely correlated with the weight of the seeds used to establish the stand. Elemental content was consistently higher in heavier seeds, but elemental concentrations in the seeds were generally negatively related to seed weight, onion growth, and yield. A combined size-aspiration grading was an effective means of eliminating seed with low-yield potential.
Nitrogen applied as NH4-N or NO3-N (75 mg·liter-1) affected onion (AIlium cepa L.) plant growth when grown in solution culture. Nitrate alone or in combination with NH4-N increased leaf fresh and dry weight, leaf area, root fresh and dry weight, and bulb dry weight when compared to growth with NH4-N as the sole N source. Bulb fresh weight was highest with an NH4-N: NO3-N ratio between 1:3 and 3:1. Maximum leaf fresh weight was not necessary to produce maximum bulb fresh weight when onions were subjected to different N-form ratios. Precocious bulbing resulted when NH4-N was the sole N source; however, high bulbing ratios early in plant development were not correlated with final bulb fresh weight. Nitrogen form also influenced water uptake and pungency, as measured by enzymatically developed pyruvate concentration, but did not affect bulb sugar concentration.