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- Author or Editor: Michele Warmund x
`Earliglow' strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa Duch.) plants were frozen to -5C to examine the distribution of ice in the crowns. Anatomical studies were also performed to characterize tissue growth in a greenhouse at 4, 8, and 16 weeks after freezing to -5C. Ice masses observed in fresh crown tissue corresponded to the presence of extracellular tissue voids in specimens fixed for scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Voids were present near the peduncle and adjacent to the vascular system in crown tissue. After plants were grown in the greenhouse, cell division and enlargement were observed near the voids in crowns subjected to -5C. By 15 weeks after freezing, a few small extracellular voids remained in the crowns.
`Earliglow' strawberry (Fragaria xananassa Duchesne) plants were frozen to -5 or -50C to examine the distribution of ice in the crowns. Anatomical studies were also performed to characterize tissue growth in a greenhouse at 4, 8, and 15 weeks after freezing to -5C. Ice masses observed in fresh crown tissue corresponded to the presence of extracellular tissue voids in specimens fixed for scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Voids were present near the peduncle and adjacent to the vascular system in crown tissue. After plants were grown in the greenhouse, cell division and enlargement were observed near the voids in crowns subjected to -5C. By 15 weeks after freezing, a few small extracellular voids remained in the crowns. Tissue voids were also present in crowns of plants frozen rapidly to -50C and subsequently thawed. Cells in the crown of these plants were intact and did not appear collapsed after exposure to -50C, a lethal temperature.
‘Emma K’, ‘Kwik Krop’, and ‘Sparrow’ black walnuts (Juglans nigra L.) were collected weekly in Sept. and Oct. 2007 to determine the effect of delayed hulling of fruits on kernel color at successive harvest dates. Delayed hulling of fruits resulted in lower kernel color values, including L*, chroma, hue angle, and LCH sum (L* + chroma + hue angle values) than those of fruits that were immediately hulled after harvest. ‘Sparrow’ kernels were visually the darkest brown color after delayed hulling. However, the effect of delayed hulling (i.e., change in kernel LCH sum values) over all harvest dates was greatest for ‘Emma K’. LCH sums of kernels generally decreased as the time of harvest was delayed. For ‘Sparrow’, mean kernel LCH sums from immediately hulled fruits decreased sharply from the third week of harvest on 20 Sept. (i.e., the “normal” date of harvest) to the next week. This decrease in LCH sums represented a change in kernel color classification from medium brown at Week 3 to dark brown in Week 4. Visual color changes for ‘Kwik Krop’ were less apparent as a result of the narrow range of color over harvest dates.
Chinese chestnut (Castanea mollissima Blume) is an exotic species that has potential as a niche crop. As a nut crop, it is relatively precocious in its bearing habit and has resistance to chestnut blight, tolerance to low winter temperatures, and relatively few pests. Current prices for fresh chestnuts are as much as $14/kg. Most U.S. chestnut growers (64%) have small orchards (less than 4 ha) and have been producing this crop for less than 10 years. Commercial chestnut production is low (≈680,000 kg) in the United States, but it is a relatively new industry in the central region. Limitations to growing this crop include a shortage of grafted trees, high tree costs, low yield efficiency, and high labor costs resulting from limited large-scale harvest equipment in the United States. However, results of ongoing research using cultivars on dwarfing rootstocks, thinning of secondary (2°) flowers, and improved tree nutrition will likely enhance profitability of production. In a 2003 Missouri survey, 67% of those interviewed had never consumed Chinese chestnuts but associated chestnut roasting with holidays. Chinese chestnuts provide health benefits. including a source of dietary fiber, a significant amount of vitamin C, no cholesterol, and are gluten-free.
Studies were conducted to characterize altered tissues of larvae-infested buds and stem and leaf galls induced by Dryocosmus kuriphilus Yasumatsu on Chinese chestnut trees (Castanea mollissima Blume) and to describe gall inhabitants. Bud and gall samples were collected from chestnut trees growing in Mantua, OH, on 2 Mar. and 3 May 2012, respectively, and prepared for microscopy. Uni- and multilocular larval chambers containing one D. kuriphilus larva per chamber were observed in buds and stem galls. Evidence of insect-modified Castanea cells was present as a two-layer zone of hypertrophied plant cells adjacent to the larval chambers before budbreak on 2 Mar. By 3 May, stem and leaf galls were in the growth and differentiation stage of development. Within galls, torn cell walls and disorganized organelles were visible in the protoplasm of cells surrounding ovoid-shaped larval chambers. A continuous layer of nutritive cells with large nuclei and nucleoli, abundant lipid bodies and mitochondria, and fragmented vacuoles was contiguous to larval chambers. At the outermost region of the nutritive tissue, cells had recently divided. Larger vacuolated cells, with slightly thickened walls, were observed surrounding recently divided cells. Thin-walled parenchyma cells in the chestnut gall cortex had large vacuoles with fewer organelles than those of the nutritive layer. Vascular tissue within the gall was connected with that of the plant host tissue outside the gall. In some chestnut galls, a single parasitoid larva was found attached to a D. kuriphilus larva. Each parasitoid larva had six pairs of setae on its head capsule, a pair of clypeal setae, a notched labrum, a semicircular lobed labium, 13 post-cephalic body segments, and rows of long, erect setae on all body segments.
Floral buds of `Royalty' purple raspberry and `Heritage' red raspberry were used to develop a cryopreservation method without loss of viability. The effects of prefreezing (PF), cooling rate, thawing rate, and cold storage at -7°C were tested. No survival was observed in samples immersed directly in LN2 whereas `Heritage' and `Royalty' had 90 and 97% survival after holding the samples at -22°C (`Heritage') or -18°C (`Royalty') for one week before immersion in LN2. In all cases, fast thawing resulted in a higher survival rate than slow thawing. Rapid cooling rate decreased the buds survival in LN2, however the effect was diminished when the samples were stored at the PF temperature for one week. The effect of both thawing and PF storage became less critical with bud dehydration. Differential thermal analysis (DTA) was conducted on buds without any PF treatment and buds that were subjected to PF and cold storage. DTA samples that did not receive PF exhibited LTEs, while LTEs were absent in samples subjected PF for one week. Thus, the slow removal of intracellular water to extracellular ice appears to be associated with subsequent survival of Rubus buds in LN2.
Cryoprotectants were applied at labeled rates to primary flowers of `Honeoye' strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa Duch.) plants at full bloom to determine their effects on the floral organs. Frostgard at 50 ml/liter or KDL at 22 ml/liter injured pistils and resulted in misshapened fruit. Floral buds that were closed when cryoprotectants were applied were uninjured. In other experiments, efficacies of cryoprotectants were determined after floral tissues of `Honeoye' strawberry plants were inoculated or not inoculated with the ice-nucleation-active (INA) bacteria, Pseudomonas syringae van Hall and subjected to sub-freezing temperatures. None of the products protected primary or secondary flowers against freezing injury regardless of the occurrence of INA bacteria. INA bacteria were not recovered from primary flowers of treated plants that were killed by low temperature exposure, indicating that non-bacterial nuclei may incite freezing in these tissues.
Inflorescences of `Earliglow' and `Honeoye' strawberry (Fragaria ×ananassa Duch.) plants were subjected to controlled freezing tests to determine the cold tolerance of styles, anthers, and receptacles of individual flowers at various stages of development. Flowers of both cultivars tended to deacclimate as the stages of development progressed. Styles and receptacles generally exhibited injury at higher temperatures than anthers. The greatest deacclimation of styles and receptacles of primary flowers occurred at earlier developmental stages of `Honeoye' than of `Earliglow'. However, at the sixth stage of development, the critical temperature for receptacle injury in primary and secondary fruit was -3C for both cultivars.
`Mark' rootstock is a relatively new dwarfing rootstock that induces precocity in apple trees. While `Mark' has desirable horticultural characteristics, it has been difficult to propagate in some areas of the United States. To determine the optimum budding date at two climatically diverse locations, `Jonagold' buds were chip-budded onto `Mark' rootstock on 20 July, 10 Aug., 31 Aug. and 21 Sept. 1989 at Atlas, Illinois and Wenatchee, Washington. Prior to budbreak, unions were sampled from each budding date and the callus, bud plate and rootstock were measured and photographed. Trees budded and grown in Illinois had more callus growth than those budded in Washington. In Illinois, the callus of trees budded on 20 July averaged 3.2 mm., whereas those budded on 21 Sept. averaged 1.0 mm. Trees grown in Washington had 0.4 mm of callus at both budding dates. Callus growth will be correlated with union compatibility and strength in Nov. 1990.
Differential thermal analyses (DTA) and freeze viability tests were conducted to investigate the biophysics of freezing in floral buds of `Danka' black (Ribes nigrutn L.) and `Red Lake' red currants [Ribe.s sativum (Rchb.) Syrne] sampled from Nov. 1989 through Mar. 1990. Scanning electron microscopy was also used to determine the relationship between floral morphology and the freezing characteristics of the buds. Floral buds had multiple abrupt low-temperature exotherms (LTEs) and one or two broad LTEs in DTA tests. Abrupt LTEs from DTA were associated with apparent injury to the inflorescence in viability tests. The number of LTEs did not correspond to the number of racemes or flowers per bud, indicating that several flowers froze simultaneously. DTA experiments conducted in Dec. 1990 revealed that the broad exotherm detected between - 14 and - 20C in `Danka' samples resulted from freezing of supercooled water in the outer nonliving region of the periderm of cane tissue attached to the bud.