Announcements & News
The 2007 Proceedings of the Florida Tomato Institute are accessible on-line
Click here to view them now.
Proceedings from previous years (2002-2006) are available at http://gcrec.ifas.ufl.edu
/vegetables.htm
All Vegetarian Newsletter Issues Are Available On-line!!!
Back issues of the Vegetarian Newsletter (VN) have been scanned and are accessible from this site, thanks to support from the Horticultural Sciences Department and Dr. Steven Sargent's efforts. The VN is now in its 58th year and I'm sure readers will find the back issues both useful and interesting from an historical perspective. We hope to be able to categorize these previous articles by subject in the future. Click here to visit our archives!!!
The electronic version of the 2007-2008 Vegetable Production Handbook is available online!
New EDIS Horticulture Publications
"Rootstocks for Florida Peaches, Nectarines, and Plums" is now available on EDIS at: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/HS366. This publication, written by J. Ferguson and J. Chaparro, describes recomended rootstocks for Florida, rootstocks no longer recomended for Florida stone fruit, and proceedures for harvesting, cleaning and stratifying 'Flordaguard' seed prior to cleaning. Click on the link in the description above to read this great publication!
" Florida Subtropical Peaches: Production Practices " is now available on EDIS at: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/HS348. This publication, written by J. Ferguson, J. Chaparro, J. G. Williamson, R. Rouse and R. Mizell, describes topics in Florida subtropical peach production such as nursery practices, site selection, orchard design, planting and much more. Click on the link in the description above to read this great publication!
"Critical Issues for the Tomato Industry: Preventing a Rapid Postharvest Breakdown of the Fruit" is now available on EDIS at: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/HS363. This bulletin represents a summary of the all work done and current guidelines for tomato growers and packer/shippers to minimize risk for rapid postharvest breakdown. Click on the link in the description above to read this great publication!
"Strategies for Subtropical Peach Production in Florida" was released by EDIS (http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/HS364). This publication, written by J. J. Ferguson, J. X. Chaparro, D.M. Omalley & L. Harrison, describes strategies for growing subtropical peaches in Florida and gives the number of chilling units different varieties require.Click on the link in the description above to read this great publication!
"Training and Pruning Florida Peaches, Nectarines, and Plums" was released by EDIS (http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/HS365). This publication, written by J. Ferguson, is a valuable resource on how to prune and train peach, nectarine and plum trees. Click on the link in the description above to read this great publication!
"Guidelines for Enrolling in Florida's BMP Program for Vegetable Crops" was released by EDIS (http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/HS367). This publication, written by Aparna Gazula, Eric Simonne and Brian Boman, describes the process for enrolling in Florida BMP program for vegetable crops as well as where you can find additional resources and help with the implementation of your BMP program. Click on the link in the description above to read this great publication!
Other sources of Hortcultural Information.
Direct link to the BMP Manual for Vegetables & Agronomic Crops in Florida
Click here for a PDF printer friendly version of this article.
Using oxygen-releasing fertilizers to improve crop plant growth
By Dr. Yuncong Li, Associate Professor and Guodong Liu, Post Doctoral Associate, UFIFAS Tropical Research and Education Center, Homestead, FL
Lack of oxygen in soil, or hypoxia, is an environmental challenge to crop productions because shortage of oxygen bioavailability in soil can adversely impact seed germination and seedling growth. Over irrigation, flooding, and waterlogging can all cause hypoxic and anoxic problems often leading acute oxygen deprivation of plant roots by saturating pores in the soil. Additionally, big size seeds and fatty seeds such as corn and peanut seeds commonly suffer from hypoxia during germination. Specially, over one-year-old seeds often germinate poorly due to the shortage of bioavailable oxygen. Currently, there is no product available that can be used to alleviate the problems for crop productions even though there is 21% gaseous oxygen available in air because this gaseous oxygen is not applicable.
However, our recent discovery provides a new means to infuse the soil with an available oxygen source that promotes seed germination and seedling growth. The oxygen-releasing fertilizers are inert and stable in soil when there is no water. They will release bioavailable oxygen gradually as long as six months if the soil is flooded or over-irrigated. The fertilizers are environment-friendly.
The oxygen fertilizers improved markedly germination rate of corn seeds. The effects of oxygen fertilizers were significant as showed in the picture below (Figure 1). The germination rate for three-year old corn seeds was improved from 30% without oxygen fertilizer to 80% with oxygen fertilizer applied.
The oxygen fertilizers favor restoration of ecosystems in the wetland seawater intrudes. Our research showed that the fertilizers promoted survival rate and growth of bald cypress in the floodplain in the Loxahatchee River Watershed (Figures 2 and 3). Bald cypress is tolerant to flooding and also some extent tolerant to salinity but the species can not stand both stresses at the same time. Our research indicated that the stressed bald cypress seedlings could survive and grow when oxygen fertilizer is applied. The field study proved that application of oxygen fertilizers significantly improved growth of the seedlings.
(Guodong Liu and Yuncong Li)
Figure 1. Effects of bioavailability of oxygen on germination of corn seeds. The top pair: one day after treatment. The bottom pair: three days after treatment.
Figure 2. Effects of oxygen fertilizer (OF) of seedlings with 100% of roots submerged in H 2 O and exposed to either 0 ppt NaCl or 8 ppt NaCl.. Flooded plants exposed to 8 ppt NaCl and treated with OF grew better than flooded plants. .exposed to the same salinty level without OF or flooded plants exposed to 0 ppt NaCl without OF.
Figure 3. Effects of solid oxygen fertilizer (SOF) on growth of bald cypress seedlings in floodplain of the Loxahatchee River Watershed. CK = control. Different letters indicate significant difference (P < 0.05).
Contributing Authors
Dale Bennett County Extension Director & Extension Agent IV
Jeffrey K. Brecht Professor, postharvest physiology
Jacque Breman County Extension Director & Extension Agent IV
Daniel J. Cantliffe Distinguished Professor and Chair, greenhouse production
Craig K. Chandler Professor, breeding/ genetics
Dan Culbert
Extension Agent III
Phyllis Gilreath Extension Agent IV
Bob Hochmuth Extension Agent IV
Chad M. Hutchinson Associate Professor, vegetable production
Mary Lamberts Extension Agent IV
Yuncong Li Associate Professor, soils
Tom MacCubbin Extension Agent IV
Gene McAvoyCounty Extension Director & Extension Agent III
Teresa Olczyk Extension Agent IV
Stephen M. Olson Professor, small farms
Rafael Munoz-Carpena Associate Professor, hydrology
Mark A. Ritenour Associate Professor, postharvest
Ed Skvarch Extension Agent I
Bielinski Santos Assistant Professor, vegetable production
Steven A. Sargent Professor and Scientific Editor, postharvest
Eric H. Simonne Associate Professor, vegetable nutrition
William M. Stall Professor, weed science
Danielle Treadwell Assistant Professor, organic/sustainable production
Richard Tyson Extension Agent IV
Alicia Whidden Extension Agent II
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