Abstract The 6-month student intern program offered by the Department of Horticulture at Iowa State University assists rural and urban Iowans in home food production through extension programs, mass media, and community projects. Advanced undergraduate horticulture students are granted internships at the county/area level and receive credits and a salary for their work. An extension horticulture associate based in the department provides the overall leadership and coordination. Intern training sessions concentrate on the type of questions to expect and problem diagnosis methods. More than 50% of homeowner concerns are related to home food production. The intern program has been received enthusiastically and has reduced the summer workload of county staff and state specialists.
Abstract Twenty-one phenolic compounds in combination with indoleacetic acid (IAA) were applied to mung bean ( Phaseolus aureus Roxb.) cuttings. Catechol, pyrogallol, salicylic acid, and tannic acid stimulated adventitious root initiation in mung bean and were further tested on Acer saccharinum L. Catechol stimulated root initiation in softwood cuttings of Acer saccharinum . Softwood cuttings of Acer griseum Pax. rooted 100% when treated with a combination of catechol (4.5 × 10 -3 M) and IAA (1.1 × 10 -3 M) for 24 hours and several combinations of catechol and IAA also stimulated the number of roots per cutting of this species.
Conventional herbicide applications to container-grown landscape plants, often requires multiple spray applications of herbicides in a growing season and presents problems such as non-uniform application, leaching, run-off, environmental pollution, worker exposure and phytotoxicity to the landscape plants. The use of an organic herbicide carrier could help reduce some of the problems associated with spray applications. Landscape-leaf waste pellets were evaluated as a preemergent herbicide carrier for container-grown landscape plants. Isoxaben, prodiamine and pendimethalin were applied to Chrysanthemum × grandiflorum `Lisa', Euonymus fortunei `Coloratus' and Spiraea japonica `Neon Flash', at rates of 1.12, 2.25, and 2.25 kg·ha -1 active ingredient, respectively, with either water or landscape leaf waste pellets as a carrier. Portulaca oleracea, Senecio vulgaris, and Setaria faberi were seeded following treatment application. Visual ratings on efficacy and photoxicity to landscape plants, and shoot fresh and dry biomass were determined for both weeds and crop plants. Landscape leaf pellets served as an effective carrier for application of prodiamine and pendimethalin and combinations of these herbicides with isoxaben in controlling weeds. Leaf waste pellets as a carrier produced equivalent weed control and phytotoxicity ratings to conventional spray application of these herbicides, on both Chrysanthemum and Euonymus . The pellets did not make a consistently effective carrier for the application of isoxaben alone. Application of herbicides on leaf pellets could result in more uniform herbicide applications, minimize loss of herbicides to the environment and reduce the risk of herbicide contact with nursery workers.
An integrated approach to weed control in nursery containers is crucial if herbicide applications during the growing season are to be reduced. This experiment, conducted in 2002 and 2003 in Urbana, Ill., evaluated rice hulls, leaf-waste pellets, and pine bark as herbicide carriers for the preemergence herbicides oryzalin at 2 lb/acre a.i. and diuron at 1 lb/acre a.i. The efficacy of the treatments in controlling annual weeds and the phytotoxic effects of the treatments on the woody plant species were evaluated in separate completely randomized designs. For the efficacy experiment, no ornamental plants were present and containers were each seeded with a mixture of 1:1:1 (by volume) of annual bluegrass ( Poa annua ), common groundsel ( Senecio vulgaris ), and shepherd's purse ( Capsella bursa-pastoris ) immediately after treatment applications. For the phytotoxicity experiment, ‘Goldflame’ spirea ( Spiraea japonica ), ‘Hetz Midget’ american arborvitae ( Thuja occidentalis ), and ‘Snowmound’ nippon spirea ( Spiraea nipponica ) were evaluated. No weed seeds were sown in the phytotoxicity containers. Treatments for both experiments included spray applications of herbicides with water or with one of the organic mulches as a carrier or one of the mulches alone. Evaluations were done 45 and 120 days after treatment (DAT) in both years. The organic carriers with herbicide sprays gave efficacy visual ratings equivalent to water as a carrier for both herbicides. Phytotoxicity was not observed in the spirea species in either year. For ‘Hetz Midget’ american arborvitae in 2002, diuron with water had the highest visual phytotoxicity rating. Diuron phytotoxicity on the ‘Hetz Midget’ american arborvitae was alleviated when diuron was applied with any of the three mulches as a carrier. Pine bark treatments increased plant biomass for ‘Goldflame’ spirea in 2003, 45 DAT. At 120 DAT in 2002, pine bark gave increased plant biomass as compared with no organic mulch treatments for ‘Goldflame’ spirea. The study was conducted to ascertain whether the use of organic mulches as carriers could reduce phytotoxic effects of a herbicide on container-grown woody ornamentals, improve crop plant biomass, and act as a herbicide carrier for container-grown woody ornamentals.
This presentation will cover some of the major decisions that were made in the development and modification of software to provide horticultural resources for college students and members of the industry. Technological changes have moved the production from video-disc technology to server-based digital formats, CD-ROM, and the World Wide Web. Each of these changes results in a different product suited to different audiences. The current stage of product development will be presented.
UIPLANTS is a program developed under Microsoft Windows to help students in woody plant materials courses. Its many options include an encyclopedic format that displays 256-color high-resolution images of plant identification characteristics and ornamental features coupled with text, side by side image comparisons, “book markers” to return to selected screens, and a slide show that runs a display of images in a user-defined format. The system is being used to study how students learn information presented to them through computers and which program features are most effective in improving plant knowledge. Through computer logging of all student activity within the program and surveys given to the test groups, some basic usage patterns were derived. Students using the program with no incentive tended to use the program in a more comprehensive manner, switching back and forth between the slide show and encyclopedic entries with equal time spent in each. The comparison and “bookmark” features were used but less frequently. Half of the students, given an extra credit incentive based on time, followed this same usage pattern, but the other half simply used the slide show with minimal student–computer interaction.
Abstract Development of dedicated bioenergy crop production systems will require accurate yield estimates, which will be important for determining many of the associated environmental and economic impacts of their production. Shrub willow ( Salix spp) is being promoted in areas of the USA and Canada due to its adaption to cool climates and wide genetic diversity available for breeding improvement. Willow breeding in North America is in an early stage, and selection of elite genotypes for commercialization will require testing across broad geographic regions to gain an understanding of how shrub willow interacts with the environment. We analyzed a dataset of first‐rotation shrub willow yields of 16 genotypes across 10 trial environments in the USA and Canada for genotype‐by‐environment interactions using the additive main effects and multiplicative interactions ( AMMI ) model. Mean genotype yields ranged from 5.22 to 8.58 oven‐dry Mg ha −1 yr −1 . Analysis of the main effect of genotype showed that one round of breeding improved yields by as much as 20% over check cultivars and that triploid hybrids, most notably Salix viminalis × S. miyabeana , exhibited superior yields. We also found important variability in genotypic response to environments, which suggests specific adaptability could be exploited among 16 genotypes for yield gains. Strong positive correlations were found between environment main effects and AMMI parameters and growing environment temperatures. These findings demonstrate yield improvements are possible in one generation and will be important for developing cultivar recommendations and for future breeding efforts.
Abstract The genus Quercus comprises a major group of woody landscape plants that differ widely in root system morphology and recovery from transplanting (2, 6). Quercus alba has a coarse root system and is more difficult to transplant than the more fibrous-rooted Quercus rubra (2).
In a case of homozygous dysfibrinogenemia, the whole blood clotting time was moderately prolonged, while the thrombin clotting time was infinite, whatever dose or nature of thrombin used. Besides, the bleeding syndrome in this case was very weak. We observed also that only after trisodium citrate addition to purified fibrinogen, the abnormal fibrinogen became unclottable by thrombin even after addition of calcium chloride, since without trisodium citrate thrombin time was only prolonged. By immunoelectrophoresis and by isofocusing in the presence or in the absence of trisodium citrate, we therefore undertook to show that trisodium citrate reacts more strongly with the abnormal fibrinogen than with normal one. Thus, trisodium citrate conferring a negative charge to the pathological molecule, the abnormal fibrinogen became resistant to clotting with thrombin. Protamine sulfate, by positiving the charges of fibrinogen, partially corrects the defect in fibrin formation.
