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Abstract
(2-Chloroethyl)phosphonic acid (ethephon) applied at 2- to 4-leaf stages on winter squash cultivars ‘Boston Marrow’, ‘Golden Delicious’ and ‘Hybrid 530’ resulted in pistillate flowers at most early nodes, but these generally aborted. Ethephon applications usually resulted in greater numbers of marketable squash which tended to be smaller in size. The only instance of a significant yield increase occurred on ‘Golden Delicious’ with 2 applications of 150 ppm ethephon. Earlier appearing nodes on ethephon treated plants produced marketable fruit and harvest, based on external color, could have been made up to a week earlier. Presently, ethephon seems to be of limited commercial promise for winter squash under Arkansas conditions.
Abstract
Eleven of 39 varieties and lines resulted in good canned slice color in both unusually warm and unusually cool growing seasons for carrots. A number of lines showed seasonal interaction in color, with better color in the cool season, while others resulted in consistently fair or poor color in both growing seasons. No single pigment was highly correlated with color across the range of environmental and genetic diversity encountered in the study. Beta-carotene was the only single component showing a significant positive correlation with color. The highest multiple relationship with color considered beta-carotene, other carotenes except alpha carotene, and xanthophylls. Within a season this multiple correlation accounted for 47 to 50% of the color variance (R of .710 for spring and .686 for fall grown carrots).
Abstract
Significant yield increases resulted when row spacing on spinach was reduced from 25.4 cm to 12.7 cm in ‘spring’, ‘overwinter’, and ‘fall’ crops. There was usually no yield advantage in in-row plant spacing closer than 5.1 cm. Color was lighter green in the fast growing ‘spring’ crops and there was more stemminess in canned ‘spring’ spinach when grown in closer row and plant spacing. These effects were not apparent in the ‘overwinter’ and ‘fall’ crops. Yield and color differences resulted from N treatments, and were related to rainfall amount and length of season. A smooth-leaved cultivar produced higher yields in the spring than a savoyed one, but in the ‘overwinter’ and ‘fall’ crops, the savoyed cultivar yielded best. Savoyed cultivars generally rated higher than smooth leaved in canning quality, primarily because of better color.