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Innovative approaches are required for improving crop productivity and quality to meet the increasing demand for providing food, energy, and other services for growing populations in a changing climate. The colloquium sponsored by the Environmental Stress Physiology (STRS) Working Group at the 2011 American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS) annual conference served as a forum to bring together several of the emerging methods for diagnosing, monitoring, and mitigating crop environmental stress with an emphasis on horticultural, physiological, and ecological approaches. These methods are likely to be readily applicable for many research areas in specialty crops in the context of climate change. The colloquium articles in this volume provide a foundation and context to lead dialogues and initiate research themes for developing adaptive strategies to minimize climate impacts on horticultural crop production in a changing climate.
Soil amendment with biochar is thought to confer multiple benefits to plants including induction of systemic resistance to plant pathogens. Pathogens in the genus Phytophthora cause damaging diseases of woody species throughout the world. The objective of this study was to test 1) whether biochar amendment induces resistance to canker causing Phytophthora pathogens; and 2) how this resistance is related to the amount of biochar amendment in two common landscape tree species: Quercus rubra (L.) and Acer rubrum (L.). Seedlings of Q. rubra and A. rubrum were planted in peatmoss-based potting mix uniformly amended with 0%, 5%, 10%, or 20% biochar by volume. Plants in each treatment group were stem wound-inoculated with an isolate of Phytophthora cinnamomi Rands (host: Q. rubra) or P. cactorum (Leb. and Cohn) Schröeter (host: A. rubrum) using standard agar-plug inoculation procedures. Amendment of potting media with 5% biochar reduced horizontal expansion of lesions in both hosts, whereas the same treatment significantly reduced vertical expansion of lesions in A. rubrum (P < 0.05). In addition, 5% biochar resulted in a higher midday stem water potential in Q. rubra (P = 0.066) and significantly greater stem biomass in A. rubrum compared with inoculated control plants (0% biochar, P < 0.05). Our results suggest that biochar amendment has the potential to alleviate disease progression and physiological stress caused by Phytophthora canker pathogens and there is likely an optimal level of biochar incorporation into the root media beyond which the effects may be less pronounced.
Shoot-bending has become a standard cultural practice in cut-flower rose (Rosa hybrida L.) production. Physiological effects of shoot-bending on leaf net photosynthesis (A), stomatal conductance (gs ), transpiration rate (E), and stem water potential (ψ) were investigated for rose plants. With saturating light conditions, shoot-bending decreased rates of A, gs , and E in comparison with the rates prior to shoot-bending. A, gs , and E of bent shoots were significantly lower than those of the control shoots that were not bent. The differences in A between bent and control shoots decreased over time, disappearing within 3 weeks after bending. Bent shoots exhibited reduced ψ. Leaves projecting upward on a bent stem were found to have higher A, gs , and E than those projecting downward. This was probably due to the destruction of xylem vessels serving the leaves attached to the lower side (compression side) of the bent stem. Our results support the hypothesis that hydraulic conductivity is reduced in bent shoots probably due to disturbed xylem tissues, and that reduced photosynthetic rates of bent shoots are a function of water status.
Characterization of leaf physiology is an important step for understanding the ecophysiology of a crop as well as for developing a process-based crop simulation model. We determined photosynthetic and transpiration responses to photosynthetic photon flux (PPF), carbon dioxide concentrations, and temperature, and parameterized a coupled leaf gas-exchange model for hardneck garlic (Allium sativum). The parameterized model performed with high accuracy and precision in predicting photosynthetic responses [r 2 = 0.95, bias = 1.7 μmol·m−2·s−1, root mean square error (RMSE) = 2.4 μmol·m−2·s−1] when tested against independent data that were not used for model calibration. The model performance for transpiration rates was less satisfactory (r 2 = 0.49, bias = –0.14 mmol·m−2·s−1, RMSE = 0.94 mmol·m−2·s−1). In addition, we characterized the relationships among chlorophyll meter readings, leaf photosynthetic capacity (A max), and leaf nitrogen content in garlic leaves. The chlorophyll meter readings were a reasonable indicator of both A max (r 2 = 0.61) and leaf nitrogen (N) status (r 2 = 0.51) for garlic leaves we studied. The garlic leaf gas-exchange model developed in this study can serve as a key component in ecophysiological crop models for garlic. Similarly, the quantitative relationship identified between chlorophyll meter readings and A max in this study can provide useful information for non-destructively assessing leaf photosynthetic capacity in garlic.
This experiment was carried out to investigate the effective cutting methods and media for hardwood cuttings in `Sunaga Wase' peach (Prunus persica L.). Using 1-year-old peach stems out of winter pruning, the cutting stems were procurred through several steps on 16 Feb. 1995 and 1996. i) Cut 30 cm in length by pruning scissors and bundled to 10 stems; ii) 1-cm bottom part of cutting stem dipped into IBA (1000 ppm solution) for 5 s and then powdering with Captan WP; iii) upper part of cutting stem coated with Topsin paste; iv) standing the bundled cutting stems in the cutting bench filled with cutting media; v) the temperature maintained at 20 ± 1°C under the level of cutting media by bottom heating and at 5 to 10°C above the media level. Among the cutting media, vermiculite showed the highest rooting percentage, as much as 93.2%, followed by Jiffy pot and rockwool cube. High transplanting survival percentage under field conditions was obtained by the treatment of vermiculite of media + cutting duration for 35 days. Although the treatment of cutting duration for 55 days showed very high percentage of rooting, such as 96.4% in vermiculite, 78.3% in Jiffy pots, and 83.3% of rockwool cube, their percentage of nursery survival after transplanting were reduced remarkably less than 10% in nursery fields covered with black polyethylene film. The nursery trees obtained from each treatment were characteristically 136 to 146 cm in tree height and 22.9 to 26.8 cm in trunk diameter.
In order to investigate the super-density planting in peach orchards, the experiment was carried out using nursery trees out of hardwood cuttings in `Sunaga Wase' peach (Prunus persica L.). The nursery trees were planted with various planting densities of 1 × 0.5 m (20,000 trees/ha), 1 × 1 m (10,000 trees/ha), 2 × 0.5 m (10,000 trees/ha), 2 × 1 m (5,000 trees/ha), and 6 × 5 m (330 trees/ha) as traditional density on 22 Mar. 1995. As soon as fruit harvest in mid-July, the peach trees were pruned by thinning and heading-back the shoots to induce the new shoot as well as to limit the tree height and lower the canopy. During the second year after planting, nursery cutting trees yielded the most peach fruits from the planting density of 1 × 0.5 m, as much as 14.37 t, which was 14 times higher than the 6 × 5 m of traditional density, followed by 2 × 0.5 m, 1 × 1 m, 2 × 1 m, and 6 × 5 m, respectively. According to summer pruning just after harvest, remaining vegetative buds burst and then the new shoot grew very vigorously in several days. The floral bud differentiation on the new shoots was lower, as much as 32.2%, than that of 77.9% in no-pruning shoots. There were no differences in fruit characteristics among various planting densities.
Garlic (Allium sativum) is a commercially and culturally important crop worldwide. Despite the importance of garlic, there have been few studies investigating how garlic growth and development will be affected by the atmospheric enrichment of carbon dioxide (CO2). A split-plot experiment with CO2 concentrations as main plot and nitrogen (N) fertilization as subplot was carried out to examine the effects of elevated CO2 at (mean ± sd) 745 ± 63 µmol·mol−1 across three levels of N: high-N (16.0 mm), mid-N (4.0 mm), and low-N (1.0 mm). Three hypotheses were tested: 1) garlic plants will allocate proportionally more biomass to bulb when grown in elevated CO2 compared with the plants grown in ambient CO2; 2) plants will sustain improved photosynthesis without downregulation in elevated CO2, irrespective of N; and 3) elevated CO2 will improve plant water use efficiency (WUE) across N fertilization levels. We found that proportional biomass allocation to bulb was not significantly enhanced by CO2 enrichment in garlic. Overall biomass accumulation represented by leaf, stem, and bulb did not respond significantly to CO2 enrichment but responded strongly to N treatments (P < 0.001). Contrary to our hypothesis, photosynthetic downregulation was apparent for garlic plants grown in elevated CO2 with a decrease in Rubisco capacity (P < 0.01). Instantaneous leaf WUE improved in response to elevated CO2 (P < 0.001) and also with increasing N fertilization (P < 0.001). Finally, our results indicate that bulbing ratio is likely to remain unchanged with CO2 or N levels and may continue to serve as a useful nondesctructive metric to estimate harvest timing and bulb size.
Increased urban and suburban populations in the arid western United States have resulted in more water demand; however, water availability in the region has become limited because of inadequate precipitation. Recent droughts have led to restrictions on irrigating landscape plants. Garden rose (Rosa ×hybrida) is commonly used as flowering plants in residential landscapes, but its drought tolerance has not been widely studied. The objective of this study was to determine the impact of reduced irrigation frequency on visual quality, plant growth, and physiology of five garden rose cultivars, including ChewPatout (Oso Easy® Urban Legend®), Meibenbino (Petite Knock Out®), MEIRIFTDAY (Oso Easy® Double Pink), Overedclimb (Cherry Frost™), and Radbeauty (Sitting Pretty™). Twenty-four plants of each rose cultivar were established in a trial plot at Utah Agricultural Experiment Station Greenville Research Farm (North Logan, UT, USA) in Summer 2021. Plants were randomly assigned to one of three deficit irrigation treatments for which irrigation frequencies were calculated using 80% reference evapotranspiration (ETO) (high), 50% ETO (medium), and 20% ETO (low). The total volumes of irrigation water applied to each plant were 345.6, 172.8, and 43.2 L for the high, medium, and low irrigation frequencies, respectively, during the deficit irrigation trial from 12 May to 30 Sep 2022. Root zones were wetted more frequently as irrigation frequency increased from low to high irrigation frequencies. Decreased irrigation frequency increased the number of visibly wilted and damaged leaves on all rose cultivars. However, only ‘Meibenbino’ and ‘MEIRIFTDAY’ exhibited a reduction in overall appearance under decreased irrigation frequency. The relative growth indices of both ‘Meibenbino’ and ‘MEIRIFTDAY’ decreased by 6%, whereas the dry weights of their leaves decreased by 37% and 36%, respectively, as irrigation decreased from high to low frequencies. Roses in this study appeared to decrease stomatal conductance up to 51% when irrigation decreased from high to low frequencies, or when air temperature increased. ‘Meibenbino’ and ‘MEIRIFTDAY’ exhibited unacceptable overall appearance, growth reduction, and higher leaf–air temperature differences, and they were less tolerant to reduced irrigation. Although the ‘Radbeauty’ maintained plant growth under the reduced irrigation frequency, the large leaf size led to a more visibly wilted appearance and the potential for heat stress, thus impairing visual quality. ‘ChewPatout’ and ‘Overedclimb’ were most tolerant to deficit irrigation at 20% ETO and maintained plant growth with acceptable visual quality and lower leaf temperatures when they received one irrigation during the growing season.