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- Author or Editor: Jennifer D. Cure x
The efficacy of undercutting as a technique to control bolting of two short-day onion cultivars was studied in controlled-environment chambers. `Buffalo' and `Granex 33' onions were grown to the third, fifth, and seventh visible leaf stages in a 10-hour photoperiod at 22/18 °C (day/night) and then exposed to 30, 40, 50, 60, or 70 days of vernalizing temperatures (10/10 °C). Half of the plants were undercut at the initiation of the vernalizing treatment. After vernalizing treatments, plants were returned to 14-hour photoperiods at 22/18 °C. `Buffalo', which is resistant to bolting, did not flower significantly under any of these conditions. The flowering response of `Granex 33' increased with leaf number at vernalization and as the duration of vernalization increased. Undercutting `Granex 33' increased the days of vernalization required for flowering and reduced the proportion of flowering relative to controls. Overall dry-matter accumulation was unaffected by leaf number at vernalization or the duration of vernalization but was reduced ≈30% by undercutting. In both cultivars, fresh mass per bulb decreased with increasing leaf stage of vernalization and number of vernalizing days. Undercutting also decreased fresh mass per bulb, but through its effect on bolting, undercutting increased marketable yield for plants vernalized and undercut at the fifth and seventh leaf stages.
One or two plants per hill of `Prince Charles' and `Royal Jubilee' watermelon were grown with drip fertigation at five in-row spacings, with or without polyethylene mulch, in four location × year combinations (environments). Rows were 1.5 m apart and in-row spacings were 45, 60, 90, 120, and 150 cm. `Royal Jubilee' yielded more than `Prince Charles' in all environments, and the highest yields were associated with low percent culls and high fruit numbers per hectare. Highest yields of marketable fruits (≥4.5 kg/melon) were obtained using polyethylene mulch and areas per plant between 0.4 and 0.9 m2. Average weight per melon, however, was ≥9 kg only at areas per plant >0.9 to 1.0 m2. Unless there is a market for small fruits (≥4.5–9 kg), optimum area per plant was ≈1.0 m2. Results for one plant per hill at one in-row spacing were similar to those for the alternative planting pattern of two plants per hill at half the in-row spacing, thus supporting the feasibility of using the more economical alternative planting pattern.
Amount of vascular development (veininess) is an important quality factor for processing wholepack tomatoes. The influences of nutrient and soil moisture stress on the amount of vascular development in `Chico III', `Dorchester', and `Roma' tomato fruit were studied. Fruit subjected to nutrient stress showed the highest amount of veininess. Fruit exposed to moisture stress after initial fruit set did not differ from controls in amount of veininess. Amount of vascularization did not differ among cultivars. A method for quantifying veininess was developed and compared with a traditional subjective rating scale. There was a high correlation (r2 = 0.77) between the subjective rating and quantitative measurement of veininess.