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Buddleia species are attractive ornamental shrubs whose major cultural problem is infestations of the two-spotted spider mite. Two factors, drought stress and leaf pubescence, were examined for their effects on spider mite infestations. Drought stress was examined by placing 20 plants into a randomized block design and stressing ten of the plants. No differences in mite life parameters were found, although there was more uninfested area in nonstressed plants. This was probably due to the nonstressed plants' ability to outgrow the spider mite infestation. Leaf texture was examined by placing four female spider mites on 5 leaf disks of 37 cultivars and species of Buddleia and counting the number of eggs laid after 96 hours. There was a strong correlation between leaf pubescence and number of eggs laid. In a second experiment, using a shell vial with a leaf placed underneath the lid and five female spider mites in the vial itself, leaf pubescence was either removed with facial peel or left. In all cases but one, the removal of pubescence increased the number of eggs laid by the spider mites.
In Fall 1999, the Univ. of Minnesota implemented a writing intensive requirement for undergraduates. As part of the requirement, students must take one writing intensive (WI) course in their major. Formal and informal writing in critical draft review are key components of intensive writing. The Dept. of Horticultural Science offers an Environmental Horticulture Major which currently has only one writing intensive course in its curriculum. Teaching faculty (13/14), responsible for 21 courses in the curriculum, were interviewed and syllabi were reviewed to gather information on what types of writing are currently being assigned and to discuss where WI courses should be placed in the Environmental Horticulture curriculum in the future. The majority of classes utilize formal writing and the majority of faculty review, or are willing to review, a draft of an assignment. Informal writing assignments are less common, indicating a deficient area of the curriculum. With slight modifications, many classes in the curriculum can meet the requirements to become WI. Faculty agreed that WI courses should be placed in upper level, smaller classes that place less emphasize on production techniques or plant identification.