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Petunia × hybrida Vilm. cvs. `Purple Wave', `Celebrity Burgundy', `Fantasy Pink Morn', and `Dreams Red' were treated with temperature and photoperiod treatments for different lengths of time at different stages of development during the first 6 weeks after germination. Plants were grown with ambient light (≈8–9 hr) at 16°C before and after treatments. Flowering was earliest and leaf number below the first flower was lowest when plants were grown under daylight plus 100 μmol·m–2·s–1 continuous light (high-pressure sodium lamps). Flowering did not occur when plants were grown under short-day treatment (8-hr daylight). Plants grown with night interruption lighting from 2200–0200 HR (2 μmol·m–2·s–1 from incandescent lamps) flowered earlier, and with a reduced leaf number compared to plants grown with daylight + a 3-hr day extension from 1700–2000 HR (100 μmol·m–2·s–1 using high-pressure sodium lamps). Plant height and internode elongation were greatest and least in night interruption and continuous light treatments, respectively. `Fantasy Pink Morn' and `Purple Wave' were the earliest and latest cultivars to flower, respectively. Flowering was hastened as temperature increased from 12 to 20°C, but not as temperature was further increased from 20 to 24°C. Branching increased as temperature decreased from 24 to 12°C. Implications of data with respect to classification of petunia flower induction and pre-fi nishing seedlings are discussed.
The effects of fertilizer placement on growth and nutrient uptake of `Count II' tomatoes (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) were evaluated in a 3-year study. Fertilizer was applied broadcast at two rates or banded in two bands at two widths or in four bands, or applied in combinations of sidedressing or broadcasting with banding of N, P, and K at 56, 112, or 224 kg·ha-1 each. Total fruit yield for the 112 kg·ha-1 banded treatment was 24% higher than that for the same rate broadcast and similar to yield for 224 kg·ha-1 broadcast. Treatments involving combined placements, wider bands, or four bands produced yields similar to that for 112 kg·ha-1 banded, but the 56 kg·ha-1 banded with two 56 kg·ha-1 sidedressings had the highest yield. Leaf concentrations and plant contents of N, P, and K and percentage recovery of quantities applied were generally higher in treatments involving banding or sidedressing when compared to broadcasting. Leaf Mn was much higher in banded or sidedressed than for broadcast treatments but was lower when 112 kg·ha-1 was applied in four bands than in two. Only with Mg and Mn were leaf concentrations and plant contents highly correlated. With 112 kg·ha-1 banded, 31.2% of the N, 5.8% of the P, and 44.7% of the K applied were taken up, compared to 12.5%, 2.3%, and 17.2%, respectively, for double this rate broadcast.
In the mid-1980s, a statewide educational program was initiated to help improve productivity in replanted apple orchards. This effort began with a study of the background of the problem in Washington and an assessment of the problems growers faced when replanting orchards. An array of potential limiting factors were identified-most important, specific apple replant disease (SARD)-but also low soil pH, poor irrigation practices, arsenic (As) spray residues in the soil, soil compaction, nematodes, nutrient deficiencies, and selection of the appropriate orchard system. The educational program was delivered using a variety of methods to reach audience members with different learning styles and to provide various levels of technical information, focusing on ways to correct all limiting factors in replant situations. Results have been: Acceptance of soil fumigation as a management tool: increased recognition of soil physical, chemical, and moisture problems; reduced reliance on seedling rootstock, and an increase in the use of dwarfing, precocious understocks; and better apple tree growth and production in old apple orchard soils.