The practice of fallowing pastures during the growing season is intended to increase plant diversity and allow natural reseeding of forage grasses. Fallowing delivers these benefits in New Zealand, but has been adopted on rotationally stocked farms in the northeastern United States with little or no quantitative assessment. Allowing the pasture to remain ungrazed may allow weedy species to ...
Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] producers across the United States are confronted with significant economic losses annually from hail. Plant injury and yield loss are associated with defoliation and node or stand loss due to bruising and breaking of plant stems from the hail. The correlation of yield loss and leaf defoliation is well defined; however, limited information exists relative to whole ...
Seed germination and vegetative growth studies were conducted to determine relative salinity tolerance of greens-type Poa annua L. compared with other cool-season turfgrass species. Effects of increasing salinity stress on final germination percentage (FGP), germination rate (GR), clipping yield dry weight (CYD), verdure dry weight (VD), root dry weight (RD), and the longest root length (LRL) ...
The use of plant growth regulators (PGRs) has opened new prospects for increased seed production in grasses and legumes, but little information is available on the effects of PGRs on alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) seed production. This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of applying chlormequat chloride (CCC) (2-chloroethyl-trimethyl-ammonium chloride) in combination with five PGRs ...
Winter cover crops can add soil organic matter, improve nutrient cycling, and suppress weeds in organic vegetable systems. A 2-yr study was conducted on organic farms in Salinas and Hollister, CA, to evaluate the effect of seeding rate (SR) and planting arrangement on cover crop density, ground cover, and cover crop and weed dry matter (DM) with a mixed cover crop. The mix contained legumes (35% ...
Flaxseed (Linum usitatissiumum) also known as linseed, is thought to be one of the world’s oldest cultivated crops with evidence of cultivation dating back thousands of years. The crop is prized for its fibre and oil. The fibre, obtained from the stocks of the plant, is used to make fine linen and paper. The oil is used primarily for industrial purposes. The oil is probably best ...
Temporary ponds and their varying water levels provide the conditions for valuable wildlife habitat. A study in Crete, conducted under the LIFE-Nature project1 Actions for the Conservation of Mediterranean Temporary Ponds in Crete, has demonstrated these ponds contain varied collections of seeds and that these ‘seed banks’ could play an important role in vegetation recovery after ...
Seed banks may contribute useful or weedy species that fill gaps in pastures. In a previous study, pastures planted to complex mixtures of forages had a lesser proportion of weedy species in the aboveground vegetation. In this study, we relate changes in the species composition of the seed bank to changes in the aboveground vegetation. In August 2001, four mixtures [two, three, six, and nine ...
Hail injury to soybean [Glycine max L. (Merr.)] is common across the United States. Currently, U.S. hail adjusters use procedures that assume that yield reductions caused by stem cutoff and defoliation or defoliation without stem loss is similar during the vegetative development period. Our hypothesis was that seed yield will be affected by timing of node removal in vegetative soybean and that ...
Perpetuating cereal cover crops through self-seeding may increase adoption by reducing risk and cost. Winter rye (Secale cereale L.), wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), and triticale (x Triticosecale Wittmack) were used to develop self-seeding cover crop systems in a soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.]–corn (Zea mays L.) rotation. Cereal cover crops were planted in varying row spacing configurations and ...
Weed growth in winter cover crops in warm climates may contribute to weed management costs in subsequent crops. A 2-yr experiment was conducted on an organic vegetable farm in Salinas, California, to determine the impact of seeding rate and planting arrangement on rye (Secale cereale L. ‘Merced’) cover crop growth and weed suppression. Each year, rye was planted in October at three rates (90, ...
Information that describes soybean aphid (Aphis glycines Matsumura) feeding injury effects on soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] yield and seed composition is needed to develop better management practices for this invasive pest. This 2-yr controlled-infestation field study measured aphid populations and the effects of those populations on soybean seed yield, yield components (shoot biomass, pods ...
Tiny, biointensive operations show smallholder farmers from around the world how they can grow far more food than conventional approaches. Her face shaded by a wide-brimmed straw hat, Olawumi Benedict is cheerfully tending to her “little babies” — kale seedlings growing in shallow wooden flats until they’re hardy enough for transplantation into soil beds. Three miles over ...
In this study, the current processes and technologies in a small enterprise, Demircanlar Oil Industry (Eskisehir, Turkey), were audited and improved from the eco-efficiency point of view. The eco-efficient management of the vegetable oil production processes has been performed on the units of physical processes, extraction and purification. The results obtained indicated that the loss in raw ...
Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] produces 29.4% of the world's edible vegetable oil. An important determinant of the nutritional value and the oxidative stability of soybean oil is the oleic acid content. Elevation of the oleate content levels leads to the improvement of soybean oil quality. However, our knowledge of the genetic factors underlying oleate variation in soybean seeds remains ...
Around the world, plant breeders are resisting what they see as corporate control of the food supply by making seeds available for other breeders to use. Frank Morton has been breeding lettuce since the 1980s. His company offers 114 varieties, among them Outredgeous, which last year became the first plant that ...
Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] seed produced in the upper Midwest of the United States is lower in protein concentration than soybean produced throughout much of the Corn Belt, the southern United States, and Brazil. As protein comprises on average more than 400 g kg–1 of the soybean seed, yields in northern latitudes may be limited by seed protein accrual. Our objective was to examine the role ...
Access to fresh water is limited due to the growing population and to provide safe drinking water is a global challenge. In this initial study, about a hundred different samples were screened for coagulation activity. Amongst the plants tested were fruits and vegetable pulps, leaves and seeds (like jackfruit, tamarind, papaya, orange, watermelon, pineapple, cucumber, green gram, peas, black ...
Hemp (Cannabis Sativa L.) is a herbaceous crop with a potential production of 12 tons of dry matter per hectare and a seed output of 0.5–2 tons per hectare, depending on its handling. The agro-ecological aspects and the high yield of vegetable biomass from hemp farming are the factors that indicate a possible interest in this plant from the point of view of energy use, but in order to validate ...
Development of Moringa as a biofuel crop has largely been underway in India, at CJP where scientists have been assessing new crops to support sustainable rural development. CJP is dedicated to the development of oil seed bearing trees - non-food multiple vegetable oil plantation and technologies in order to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, bring greater control and security of fuel supply and ...