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- Author or Editor: James D. Anderson x
The change from asexual to sexual propagation for annual and perennial bedding plants has been successfully accomplished for floral crops, e.g., Pelargonium. Seed-propagated cultivars do not necessarily possess the clonal uniformity of vegetatively propagated cultivars. In the development of F1 hybrid garden chrysanthemums, this lack of uniformity was assessed with the use of consumer sensory evaluations. Seedlings (n = 10–20 plants/cross) were transplanted for field trials in St. Paul and five Minnesota branch stations each year during 1988–94 to test for G × E. Early flowering F1 hybrids, developed from inbred parents with general combining ability, were evaluated for flowering earliness, plant uniformity, and a general rating. Consumer rankings of top performers were not significantly different (5% level) from mum breeders. The top performers for all three ratings were selected each year for repeat evaluation the next year. The two highest performing F1 hybrids were submitted for All American Selection Trials in 1995.
Cover crop management in growing horticultural produce has attracted attention for reducing soil erosion and limiting the input of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. Hairy vetch (Vicia villosa Roth.), one of the cover crops, exhibits desirable attributes such as high N fixing ability, biomass quality, adaptability to low temperatures, resistance to pests, and fitness in vegetable production, particularly in rotation with tomatoes. The interactions between the cover crop mulch and the tomato plant in the field plots result in delayed leaf senescence and increased disease tolerance. The mechanisms underlying these interactions are largely unknown. Limits in pursuing these studies year-round in the field—growing season and complexity and variability of the field environment—could be circumvented if the observed responses of tomato plants to hairy vetch mulch in the field could be reproduced under greenhouse conditions. We have tested tomato plants for two years in the greenhouse using soil residues brought from field plots where respective cover crops had been previously grown. Treatments were a) bare soil from a fallow, weed-free field plot, b) soil from a field plot that had been planted into a rye cover crop, and c) soil from a field plot that had been planted into a hairy vetch cover crop. Pots with soil from the rye or vetch field plots were further topped with rye or vetch residues, respectively, after transplanting the tomato plants. Additional N was applied to 50% of the plants in each treatment. In the greenhouse, cover crop residue-supplemented tomatoes exhibited high vigor, higher marketable yield and delayed senescence compared to those grown in bare soil. All treatments responded favorably to additional N from commercial fertilizers. Delayed leaf senescence correlated with the accumulation of rubisco large subunit and chitinase, two proteins central to photosynthesis and pathogenesis, respectively. This study shows that the responses of tomato plants to cover crops seen in the field can be mimicked under greenhouse conditions.
The generation time (0.75 to 1.5 years) in perennial, hexaploid chrysanthemums [Dendranthema grandiflora Tzvelv. (Chrysanthemum morifolium Ramat.)] impedes the rate of progress for sexual breeding programs in creating new clonal cultivars, inbred lines for hybrid seed production, and genetic studies. Modifications to the crossing environment and embryo rescue were evaluated to minimize the chrysanthemum generation cycle. One greenhouse chrysanthemum clone was outcross-pollinated using a bulk pollen source. Following emasculation, inflorescences were either left in situ or the peduncle bases were placed in styrofoam boards floating on a solution of 1% sucrose and 200 ppm 8-HQC under laboratory conditions. Embryogenesis occurred at a faster rate under laboratory conditions as tested with histological techniques; the heart stage appeared as early as the second day after pollination, compared with 11 days using in situ methods. Total embryogenic development time ranged from 25 (laboratory seed development) to 52+ days (in situ ripening). In a second test, embryo rescue (ER) significantly improved percent seed set, percent germination, and percent of progeny reaching anthesis relative to normal development. ER progeny from both garden parents were significantly earlier in total generation time than corresponding non-ER siblings. Laboratory seed development and ER were then used sequentially to obtain an average progeny generation time of =100 days, thus allowing for three generations per year. The potential impact of these two techniques on breeding chrysanthemums and other perennial crops with long generation times is discussed.
Experiments were conducted to compare changes in quality of slices of red tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill. `Sunbeam') fruit from plants grown using black polyethylene or hairy vetch mulches under various foliar disease management systems including: no fungicide applications (NF), a disease forecasting model (Tom-Cast), and weekly fungicide applications (WF), during storage at 5 °C under a modified atmosphere. Slices were analyzed for firmness, soluble solids content (SSC), titratable acidity (TA), pH, electrolyte leakage, fungi, yeasts, and chilling injury. With both NF and Tom-Cast fungicide treatments, slices from tomatoes grown with hairy vetch (Vicia villosa Roth) mulch were firmer than those from tomatoes grown with black polyethylene mulch after 12 days storage. Ethylene production of slices from fruit grown using hairy vetch mulch under Tom-Cast was ≈1.5- and 5-fold higher than that of slices from WF and NF fungicide treatments after 12 days, respectively. The percentage of water-soaked areas (chilling injury) for slices from tomatoes grown using black polyethylene mulch under NF was over 7-fold that of slices from tomatoes grown using hairy vetch under Tom-Cast. When stored at 20 °C, slices from light-red tomatoes grown with black polyethylene or hairy vetch mulches both showed a rapid increase in electrolyte leakage beginning 6 hours after slicing. However, slices from tomatoes grown using the hairy vetch mulch tended to have lower electrolyte leakage than those grown with black polyethylene mulch. These results suggest that tomatoes from plants grown using hairy vetch mulch may be more suitable for fresh-cut slices than those grown using black polyethylene mulch. Also, use of the disease forecasting model Tom-Cast, which can result in lower fungicide application than is currently used commercially, resulted in high quality fruit for fresh-cut processing.
Experiments were conducted to compare changes in quality of slices of red tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill., cv. Sunbeam) fruit from plants grown using black polyethylene or hairy vetch mulches under various foliar disease management systems including: no fungicide applications (NF), a disease forecasting model (Tom-Cast), and weekly fungicide applications (WF), during storage at 5 °C under a modified atmosphere. In this study, we used the fourth uniform slice from the stem end and analyzed for firmness, soluble solids content (SSC), titratable acidity (TA), pH, electrolyte leakage, molds, yeasts and occurrence of water-soaked areas. With both NF and Tom-Cast fungicide treatments, slices from tomato fruit grown with hairy vetch mulch showed greater firmness than those from tomato fruit grown with black polyethylene mulch after 12 d of storage. Ethylene production of slices from tomato fruit grown using hairy vetch mulch under Tom-Cast was about 1.5- and 5-fold higher than that of slices from tomato fruit grown under the WF and NF fungicide treatments after 12 d, respectively. Within each fungicide treatment, slices from tomato fruit grown using hairy vetch mulch showed less chilling injury (water-soaked areas) than those from tomatoes grown using black polyethylene mulch. The percentage of water-soaked areas for slices from tomato fruit grown using black polyethylene mulch under NF was over 7-fold that of slices from tomato fruit grown using hairy vetch under Tom-Cast. These results suggest that, under our conditions, fruit from plants grown using hairy vetch mulch may be more suitable for fresh-cut slices than those grown using black polyethylene mulch.