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- Author or Editor: Emily Hoover x
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The Minnesota Landscape Arboretum has been educating urban youth in a garden setting through the Children's Garden in Residence program located in Minneapolis, Minn., for 20 years. The program partners with community groups to teach pre-K to 4th grade students about the wonders of science and nature. The program presently educates between 100 and 120 children each summer. In addition to serving more children, the program curriculum and activities have evolved through the years, developing, trying, redesigning, and trying again curricula to meet the needs of urban children. The result of this process is a program that emphasizes hands-on, garden-based lessons in science, nutrition, and art. We are in the process of documenting the curricula used in the program. This paper will discuss the history of the program, highlight a few units used at the different grade levels, and discuss the documentation process.
Decision cases have been written for use in horticulture education for some time at the Univ. of Minnesota. How faculty involve graduate students in this process will be discussed using the decision case Sunny Hollow Orchard. This decision case concerns the need to make management decisions in a commercial apple orchard planted largely with Haralson, a russet-susceptible cultivar. The growers involved had to decide whether the application of GA4+7 for russet suppression was appropriate for their operation, given all the factors which required addressing. The case was written for use in fruit production or other intermediate-to-advanced undergraduate course. The case can be used to illustrate the decision-making processes involved in operating a commercial crop production enterprise encompassing such issues as cultural and environmental factors, financial viability and pesticide concerns. The case exposes students to a real-life situation and provides them with the opportunity to face a complex but not uncommon situation for producers in the horticultural industry. We will then focus on how this case fit into the entire PhD research program and how we hope to integrate this kind of experience into graduate education.
The objective of our study was to establish first year strawberry plantings without using herbicides. `Honeyoye' transplants were set into plots measuring 6.1m × 7.32m on 21 May, 1993. Four treatments were established: winter wheat, a dwarf Brassica sp., napropamide (2.24kg/h), and no weed management. After the strawberry plants, cover crops (and some weeds) were fairly well established, (18 June) 6 week-old African “weeder” geese were put into half of each plot to graze. Weekly data was taken on the percentage of soil area covered with plant material, height and stage of development of plants, and weeds present. A weed transect was done in 6 July. Plant material was collected from each plot on 26 July and 16 Sept. in a 0.2m2 area, and dried. The most promising cover crop treatment was the dwarf Brassica for early season weed control. However, the herbicide treatment with no geese produced the best strawberry plant growth.
Cultivar may cause variation in arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) colonization levels leading to differences in shoot growth and runner formation, and in pathogen control in strawberries. However, a clear consensus has not been reached regarding the degree to which cultivar affects the formation of the symbiosis or its functioning. The study was conducted on four commercial strawberry farms in Minnesota and Wisconsin to compare, within a farm, mycorrhizal colonization and plant response among three strawberry cultivars: `Winona', `Anapolis' and `Jewel'. At each farm, two 6 × 6 meter plots of each cultivar were randomly selected. On each of three sampling dates, 4 whole plants and soil samples were collected from these plots in the 2003 field season. Roots were separated from shoots and leaves, and fresh and dry weights were taken. Leaves and soil were dried, weighed, and submitted for nutrient analysis. Soil nutrient analyses include phosphorus (Bray P), potassium, pH, buffer pH and organic matter. Leaf tissue analyses include P, K, Ca, Mg, Na, AL Fe, MN Zn, Cu, B, Pb, Ni, Cr, and Cd. Roots were collected, frozen, and prepared for scoring using methods adapted from Koske and Gemma (1989). Presence of mycorrhizal colonization is being scored using the methods of McGongle et al. (1990). Levels of mycorrhizal colonization among different strawberry cultivars will be compared. We will also use biomass measurements, to determine mycorrhizal effects on plant growth among different cultivars. Soil and leaf analysis data will be used to determine effects of AMF on plant nutrition and compare effects among cultivars.
Decision cases are designed to enhance students critical thinking by engaging them in authentic problem situations. Students are assigned the role as decision maker with a dilemma to solve. In the assignment, the decision maker has to weigh the issues, identify the options, and develop strategies for solutions either individually or as a group. The authors have been writing and using decision cases in upper level undergraduate production courses in fruits and vegetables to integrate information from classes in plant pathology, entomology, and production horticulture. Decision cases dealing with weed control strategies in small fruit production and vegetable production scheduling will be discussed to illustrate the strengths and weaknesses of the case approach.
Decision cases have been used as an instructional tool in business education and are now being written for agricultural disciplines. Students are placed as the decision maker to solve managerial problems without having to experience the situation first-hand. In the assignment, the decision maker has to distinguish germane from unimportant facts, identify alternatives among several issues, and formulate strategies and solutions either individually or as a group. Decision cases allow students to become actively engaged in the analysis of the facts and details of the case, the selection of a strategy, and the refinement and justification of the chosen strategy. A sample case will be presented where an orchard manager must decide on a pest management strategy for an apple orchard. This case will be used to illustrate the strengths and weaknesses of the case approach.
`Haralson,' the most widely-grown cultivar in Minnesota, is highly susceptible to russetting and cracking in many orchards. Because wax platelet arrangement has been proposed as a cause for russettting in `Golden Delicious' apples, we examined the wax platelet arrangement of `Haralson' apples. When compared to the wax platelet arrangement found on the russet-susceptible `Golden Delicious,' and on `McIntosh,' a cultivar which does not russet in our region, `Haralson' platelets were large and upright in orientation, more numerous than found on `Golden Delicious,' but unlike the smaller, more granular platelets found on `McIntosh.' In a concurrent study, we made four GA,,, (Provide) applications, at petal fall and at p.f. +10, 20, and 30 days. At harvest, the treated and untreated blocks of trees were examined for incidence of russet, 25-ct. wt., and total yield per tree. Treated trees produced a greater number of fruit of slightly larger size and with reduced incidence of russet than untreated trees in the study.
Horticulture students in an entry-level course (Plant Propagation) and an upper-level course (Small Fruit Crop Production) were assigned brief writing tasks at the end of each class period based upon that day's lecture. Student writing was intended to be expressive in nature, i.e., for the author's use only. For the first five minutes of each class period, students divided into small groups to discuss possible responses to the previous day's task and to generate questions related to the task topic. The class then reconvened as a whole for a question-and-answer session before lecture was resumed. Students collected their writings in a workbook which they turned in for experimental evaluation only at the end of the quarter. When compared to previous and concurrent sections of the same courses, students engaging in the writing tasks asked more numerous and thoughtful questions in class and demonstrated increased ability to perform well on complex exam questions requiring integration and synthesis of information.
One of the most important factors determining apple (Malus pumila P. Mill.) market acceptance is peel color. Coloring of ‘Honeycrisp’ fruits can adopt two patterns: blushed or striped. This is an unusual phenomenon in apple. The objective of this study was to compare ‘Honeycrisp’ fruit from trees that were propagated from buds occurring on branches carrying only blushed or striped fruit. We concluded that blushed trees tend to produce a higher percentage of blushed fruit than striped trees, indicating a mechanism conserved through cell division. The percentage of blushed fruit on any given tree changed from year to year. Blushed and striped fruit occurred together on the same branch, and even on the same spur, with fruits located in the outer canopy being more likely to be striped. Higher crop loads were associated with a lower percentage of blushed fruit on the tree. Blushed and striped fruit do not consistently differ in their maximum pigment accumulation before ripening. The comparison of average hue angle for the whole peel at harvest indicates that blushed fruit are redder on average. Stripes were caused by reduced anthocyanin accumulation in certain portions of the peel and not by deeper localization. We speculate that an epigenetic mechanism regulates the pattern of anthocyanin accumulation in ‘Honeycrisp’ apple. Increased production of blushed, redder apples may be achieved through clonal selection and crop load regulation. A software tool for efficient relative color evaluations was developed and is freely available to the community.
`Honeycrisp', a relatively new apple cultivar, is susceptible to bitter pit, a physiological disorder that develops mainly during storage. Although the cause of bitter pit is unknown, calcium (Ca) content of the fruit is known to be involved. A field experiment was conducted in Chanhassen, Minn. to refine recommendations for use of Ca sprays for reduction of bitter pit in `Honeycrisp' apple. Specific objectives were to determine: 1) Ca concentration and content throughout the fruit growing season; and 2) the association of bitter pit incidence with Ca concentration, crop load, vegetative growth and fruit size. Six treatments tested included: control; Ca(NO3)2 sprays all season; Ca(NO3)2 sprays early in the season; Ca(NO3)2 sprays late in the season; hand-thinning combined with Ca(NO3)2 sprays all season and hand-thinning. Ca concentration in fruits was measured bi-weekly using three different sampling methods: segments, cores and plugs. A randomized block design with four trees as experimental unit and five replications was used. Results suggest lower crop loads increase bitter pit incidence. While fruit from the thinned treatments was larger in size by the end of the experiment, no bitter pit was present at harvest. After 4 months of storage, the hand thinning treatment had 7.4% bitter pit, while thinning plus Ca reduced bitter pit to 2.4%. The other treatments had less than 1% bitter pit. Fruit analyses at the end of the growing season indicate that early and full season sprays resulted in the highest Ca concentration in fruit segments and cores. The lowest values were found for the thinning treatment. No association was found between vegetative growth and bitter pit incidence.