Posted on 02/09/2009 12:36:11 AM PST by nw_arizona_granny
I will search through the old thread later, probably post something tomorrow. I’ll ping you when I find anything.
Not sure if these got posted as this is a huge thread, but consider these items:
Portable Shortwave/SSB radio
Mr. Heater Heater/Cooker
Propane cylinders (1-20 lb.)
Mr. Heater Big Buddy (Outdoor and Indoor Safe Propane Heater)
Hope this helps.
Some easy - small - productive garden methods...
Sq ft Gardening
What’s sq ft gardening? Is it a dance? Actually it’s almost the opposite, because when you have a square foot garden layout, it’s rather easy to sit down on the job.
Sq ft gardening, or square foot gardening, is also called a box garden... and you’ve guessed it... it’s all done in small squares or boxes.
This is one of the easiest ways to garden. It makes gardening a pleasure for those who are frail or handicapped.
So grab your pardner (or a spade) 1..2..3.. and lets go square dancin’!
Doin’ the sq ft gardening shuffle
But first a teensy bit of strenuous preparation. Build your garden first (the no-dig method naturally) using a solid boundary, such as planks, logs or tyres, around the edges.
Make your square foot garden beds long and narrow, or make a U-shaped bed, allowing for cultivation from either side without having to step on the garden. If your garden is against a wall, make it your arm’s reach wide.
On the outside of the planks or edge, knock in short upright stakes. If they get a bit skewed sometimes, sort them out but no need to be too fussy. The inside is then divided by coloured tapes or string into roughly 12-inch (30cm) squares.
This size seems to be not too big, not too small, but just right... sorry Goldilocks! Really these sq ft garden plots mean no wastage, and make it easy to use the minimum of seed, thus a minimum, if any, of thinning.
Per square you can plant one cabbage, or two cucumbers, three marigolds, or four lettuces, 4 parsley, or eight beans, or 16 carrots, and so on.
As with all gardens, planning your square foot garden should take into account the usual rules, like north/south aspect for sun, water availability, and prevailing wind.
And because this neat little box gardening method is so suitable for the less-than-agile gardener, make the site as near the kitchen or living room as possible so you can easily nip out for some garnish, a lettuce leaf, or spot of maintenance.
After harvesting one square, add a trowel of compost, maybe some mulch and rotate with different plants, You can see that sq ft gardening is not at all daunting as you do it square by square over time if necessary.
Most work can be done seated, though some people prefer to kneel. You can lean down from an ordinary plastic chair, but don’t strain your back. You may find a low bench seat with back support the best. Use an adjacent light chair to help yourself to rise by putting a hand on its seat.
Straw Bale Gardening
Limited space? No soil? Toxic or rocky ground? Spare corner? Edge
of drive or yard? Here’s bales of advice for you on the
straw bale gardening way.
Especially good for those with dickey backs, straw bale gardening needs only someone to lug the jolly bales into place and with a minimum of effort you’ll have a marvel of bounty and beauty indeed.
We can learn from others here. There are timely tips on straw bale gardening that will save you angst. Here’s the hoedown:
The bale is the garden. Put it on your balcony or path if you want to.
Use one or umpteen bales as you need and in any pattern. Because straw bale gardening is raised, it’s easy to work with, so make sure you allow for handy access.
Wheat or oat straw is best as it’s the stalks left from harvesting grain with very few seed left. Hay bales are less popular as they are made of whole plants with mucho seeds and often other weeds in. Use what you can get locally — it may even be lucerne or pea straw bales.
Put the bales in the exact place, because it’s too hard to even nudge these monsters once you’ve got your little straw bale garden factory in full swing. You’ll get one good season out of a bale and usually two, albeit with a bit of sag. It makes for great compost or mulch when finished with. Straw bale for garden
Lay them lengthwise to make planting easy by just parting the straw. Make sure the string is running around each bale and not on the side touching the ground in case it’s degradable twine. Keep the twine there to hold it all in place and if it does rot, bang some stakes in at both ends.
Starting off with slightly aged bales of about 6 months is best, but if they’re new, thoroughly soak with water and leave for 5 or so days whilst the temperature rises and cooks the inside, then they will cool and be ready for planting. They won’t be composting much inside yet, that takes months, but you don’t want that initial hot cooking of your plants.
Some sneaky people speed up the process of producing microbes and rot by following a 10-day pre-treatment regime of water and ammonium nitrate on the top of each bale. But, hey, organic gardeners are a patient lot aren’t we, so let’s follow nature?
Keep watered. That’s going to be your biggest task. Straw bale gardening uses more water than a normal garden, so set up a system now. It may be that swilling out the teapot on it each day is enough in your area, or you may need to keep the hose handy.
Straw bale gardening — plants to plant
Annuals of vegetables, herbs or flowers will love it. Remember your bales will be history in 1-2 years. Young plants can go straight in. Pull apart or use a trowel and depending on the state of the straw, put a handful of compost soil in too, then let the straw go back into place.
Seeds can be planted on top if you put a layer of compost soil there first.
Top heavies like corn and okra, are not so good, unless you grow dwarf varieties. With straw bale gardening it’s hard to put solid stakes in so big tomato plants are out, although they will happily dangle over the edge.
Each bale should take up to half a dozen cucumbers, trailing down. Squash, zucchini, melons — maybe 3 plants, or a couple of tomato plants per bale with one or two herbs and leafy veggies in between. Four pepper plants will fit or 12-15 bean or pea plants.
There’s no limit and why not poke in around the side a plant or two of some flowering annual for colour and companion if you like.
Once every 1-2 weeks water in a liquid organic feed, such as compost tea or fish emulsion. Tip some worms on top if you want to use your bales only one season.
It’s simple to pull out any wayward grain seeds with straw bale gardening, but with hay bales you may need to occasionally give them a haircut rather than try and pull the tenacious new sprouts out.
One of the neatest ideas ever, it’s not too late for you to give straw bale gardening a go somewhere around your place.
Lasagna Gardening
Another practical and natural short cut to digging and tilling, lasagna gardening follows the same guidelines as other no dig methods.
You know those barren, sloped, stony, weedy, sandy, clay compacted places where you look at aghast and wonder how you could ever get a garden going there? That’s where lasagna gardening proves its worth.
Just toss down layer upon layer - that’s what a lasagna garden is - layers.
Start with old leaves, then 5-10 layers of newspaper, or some thick cardboard, then some grass clippings, next some compost, then straw. Soak it well with water.
OR... start with cardboard, then old grass, straw, compost, then coffee grounds, more grass, prunings, fruit peelings, veggie scraps, wood chips, seaweed... just keep piling it on.
Honestly you can do any topsy-turvy way you like with whatever material is at hand. It will eventually all rot and provide a great home for your plants.
Obviously there are tried and true materials and the order they are layered, that speed up the process, but lasagna gardening is just like other no-dig methods, whether done by gardeners, or in the wild... layers of whatever nature happens to whirl around in the environment then drop on the ground, covered with something from a passing animal, then some leaves fluttering down, a dead branch or two, and soon the worms and crawlies find a home there. Then a few seeds decided to set up home and grow, and so the cycle continues.
With lasagna gardening - as with all no-dig methods - using newspaper or cardboard, or your old school reports if you want to, suppresses any greenery underneath and decomposes well. Equally important, earthworms love paper and stampede towards it, nicely aerating the soil.
To plant small plants or seeds in your layer garden, use some compost or potting mix. For shrubs, or any plants that need some soil around their roots, you will need to dig a hole and put some compost in first.
Raised Vegetable Garden
What is a raised vegetable garden?
Often called raised bed gardening, it is a method that includes no-dig, no-till, lasagna, straw bale, and square foot gardening.
Raised gardens can be as high as a kite, as low as you can go and as many layers as you want to stack on.
Toy blocks for raised vegetable garden layers
A raised vegetable garden is loved by gardeners’ backs, because there is less stooping and digging.
So, phooey to all that seriously wicked waste of energy and let’s get onto the perennial argument over which raised bed gardening method is best.
I know what way works for me, and I can tell you it’s more than one way! I successfully tried:
* Layers of old natural carpet instead of paper or cardboard.
* Mushy kitchen scraps slopped straight onto tangled weeds and grass, sprinkle of lime, wet newspapers, topped with piles of fallen leaves and grass clippings... then planted seedlings in with small handfuls of soil or compost.
* Bulldozed pile of cleared backyard mess (just moved there) with mostly branches, giant weeds, even old washing machine parts, and the odd cannabis plant... planted zucchini and pumpkin plants each in a good dollop of compost in the pile... and watched as the pile shrunk and the zucchini and pumpkins took off!
And so on... the point being, is that there are hundreds of ways to make a raised vegetable garden, and there’s no digging involved and they are built up from the ground, sometimes in boxes, tires, crates, or just natural mounds.
Step 1. Lay out your garden area. Leave the grass it will die, or cut it if you wish. The garden beds can be any height needed. I’ve previously built ones for community groups of about 1m (3ft) high to allow for wheelchair access. It’s a matter of layering to get things to the height you want.
Step 2. Lay out old cardboard. Try your local supermarket for this... recycling again...love it...
Step 3. Wet your newspaper before your spread it out—it will stick together when you overlap it.
Step 4. Spread WET newspaper OVER cardboard making sure that it overlaps by about a quarter to one third of its size. By doing it this way you are cutting out the sunlight and the grass will die and it, as well as the cardboard and paper, will all rot back and feed Mother Earth.
Step 5. Next comes a layer of Lucerne Hay (more food as it breaks down).
Step 6. A thin layer of Manure (in this case “Moo Poo”) is then laid out...
Step 7. Finally this is all covered with a layer of straw (I use Pea Straw as it adds more nutrient as it breaks down) and it also works as a mulch for your plants keeping them warm in the winter and cool in the summer.
raised vegetable garden Les 8 Step 8. From here it is just a matter of making a small hole in the top layer of straw and adding a handful of potting mix or compost and planting into it. You can see the results of this one that I prepared earlier.
I hope that this inspires you to build your own raised vegetable garden and to get out into your yard and smell the
roses (or cabbages).
No Till Gardening
No till gardening really should be called no till farming, because it is referring to the elimination of conventional farming ways of plowing, compacting, degrading and eroding vast areas of farmland by the use of machines.
Some readers may have quite large plots of land or grow vegetables in a small commercial way, in which case the following information will prove invaluable.
And just a mention for first timers into no till gardening. If your land has not yet built up a good layer of compost with all the necessary soil activity, then it may be necessary to aerate the soil yourself.
Plants need sun, air and water to thrive, and if the earthworms aren’t there yet, the soil will need to be broken up deep down for you to get a decent crop in the beginning.
For a large plot of land, run a machine over it with prodder type spikes, and for a smaller plot, get yourself a long prodding garden fork and off you go. You don’t want your plants to come to a full stop when their roots reach a hardpan layer.
Don’t turn the soil, just poke holes in it. It’s no till gardening, not no poke holes, so don’t feel guilty because it’s not as though you’re turning the soil layers over or compacting the soil, (which is what conventional farming does.)
When no till farming first became popular, many farmers used chemicals or burning to get rid of their crop remains and weeds instead of plowing them under. Oops, that created more problems with chemical run-off into lakes and streams, and poison residues. Was plowing still a better option?
No... plowing or rotary hoeing is terrible for the land in the long term. There are many complex reasons, and you may like to read further information on this by soil experts. But for now here are a few simple points.
Firstly tilling creates soil erosion, because it breaks up the structure of the soil and fine particles are then easily blown or washed away, or washed down into the porous gaps in the soil and over time this actually clogs up the soil.
This can cause any one of the following depending on the clay and sand composition of the soil: Loss of soil; water-logging; too much aeration; compaction — made worse by heavy equipment; and formation of a hard topsoil pan which hinders seed germination and stops water infiltrating.
Secondly, although tilling initially makes crops produce abundantly because of sudden aeration, this is often excessive and abnormal for the plant.
In the meantime organic matter, bacteria, fungi and earthworms are all destroyed by tillage and not able to maintain the fine balance of harmony by providing nutrients to plants in a timely cycle. Eventually more and more fertilisers have to be used to maintain production.
No till gardening is natural and the soil ecology is NOT sent topsy turvy. Tilling damages and exposes earthworms and fatally buries other beneficial organisms including some that would normally help control invaders — such as plant-eating nematodes.
Tilling releases CO² into the air, whereas if there was a rich organic soil layer, this carbon would be in the plant remains and thus retained in the soil. You can read more about how in no till gardening sequests CO².
Not only that, but the reduced use of heavy farm machinery with the no till gardening method, decreases emissions of CO².
What farmers, market gardeners and small plot owners are doing now is either total no till farming or “conservation tillage.” This means leaving the ground and any cover undisturbed, but using, if necessary, less damaging machinery to open up enough of a furrow or hole and in many cases do the sowing or planting with the same run.
Some of the popular implements used are harrows, cultivators and chisel plows. These land friendly machines only lift and moderately break the soil and prepare the surface for seed sowing or planting.
In poorer countries of course, hand or oxen tillage is done by armies of farm workers. But for small scale gardeners anywhere, a fork and rake with occasional spade use for planting are adequate.
The longer no till farming is practised and the sooner compost is added or plant remains left to decompose in the field, the better the soil structure becomes. Over time, the yeilds have proven to be higher with this method.
The golden rule with no till gardening is to avoid inverting the soil and tread lightly or not at all on your planting area.
http://www.no-dig-vegetablegarden.com
http://www.nationalterroralert.org/
Launch Date March 2nd 2009
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Osama bin Laden’s “master poisoner” is planning terror outrages from his jail cell. Home Office documents seen by the Mirror reveal Kamel Bourgass is recruiting extremist prisoners to communicate with undercover al-Qaeda operatives. Bourgass, 33, is already ...
This story comes to us via Homeland Security - National Terror Alert. National Terror Alert is America’s trusted source for homeland security news and information.
Where Is Bin Laden - Science May Hold The Answer
Fugitive terrorist Osama bin Laden is most likely hiding out in a walled compound in a Pakistani border town, according to a satellite-aided geographic analysis released today. A research team led by geographer Thomas Gillespie of ...
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Amtrak officials say they removed a passenger who was behaving suspiciously from a train in North Carolina on Monday. The Silver Star was headed to Miami from New York when it stopped in Garysburg, N.C., near ...
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http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-02/uotm-sus021609.php
Public release date: 16-Feb-2009
Contact: Jim Kelly
jpkelly@utmb.edu
409-772-8791
University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston
Scientists uncover secrets of potential bioterror virus
Major virulence factor for Rift Valley fever virus found to have dual mechanism
GALVESTON, Texas —Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston have discovered a key tactic that the Rift Valley fever virus uses to disarm the defenses of infected cells.
The mosquito-borne African virus causes fever in humans, inflicting liver damage, blindness and even death on a small percentage of the people it infects. Rift Valley fever also afflicts cattle, goats and sheep, resulting in a nearly 100 percent abortion rate in these animals. Its outbreaks periodically cause economic devastation in parts of Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Zimbabwe, and bioterrorism experts warn that its introduction to the United States would cripple the North American beef industry.
“It’s really important to know how this virus causes disease, and that’s what we’re doing here, working to understand its pathogenicity at the molecular level,” said assistant professor Tetsuro Ikegami, lead author of a paper on the discovery now appearing in PLoS Pathogens.
Ikegami and his collaborators focused on a viral protein called NSs. The protein was already known to be a major factor in making Rift Valley fever more virulent; earlier research had shown that it penetrated cell nuclei and disrupted the coding of RNA messages, including those ordering the production of the antiviral protein interferon beta.
“We didn’t know what the mechanism was, but we suspected NSs had some additional function that would promote viral replication,” Ikegami said. So — starting with an already weakened strain of Rift Valley fever virus produced as part of a vaccine development project — he created a genetically engineered form of the virus that lacked the genes for NSs.
Safety precautions make working with natural, “wild-type” Rift Valley fever virus difficult; at UTMB, investigations are restricted to a tightly secured biosafety level 4 lab, where researchers work in protective, full-body “spacesuits.” By contrast, the vaccine strain of the virus that Ikegami modified, known as MP-12, can safely be handled inside a standard biosafety cabinet.
Using the NSs-free mutant virus to perform a series of cell-culture experiments, the researchers found that NSs does in fact have a second function. It attacks a protein called PKR, the beginning of a chain of biochemical reactions leading to the accumulation of a molecular complex known as phosphorylated eIF2-alpha. Phosphorylated eIF2-alpha suppresses overall protein production. Unblocked, it would prevent Rift Valley fever virus from using cellular protein synthesis machinery to make the proteins it needs to replicate itself. But since NSs prevents the phosphorylation of eIF2-alpha by taking out PKR, the virus is free to copy itself within host cells without interference.
“It’s amazing that the virus evolved to use one protein to do two jobs, to use its very limited genetic information to perform these very different functions,” said microbiology and immunology professor Shinji Makino, senior author of the paper. “It’s really interesting, and it’s also important, because these types of experiments are critical to learning how to control this virus.”
###
The paper’s other authors include senior research scientist Krishna Narayanan, graduate student Sungyong Won, postdoctoral fellow Wataru Kamitani and pathology and microbiology and immunology professor C.J. Peters. This research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the James W. McLaughlin Foundation and UTMB’s Sealy Center for Vaccine Development.
The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston
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301 University Boulevard, Suite 3.102
Galveston, Texas 77555-0144
www.utmb.edu
Starve The Beast (A FR Actvism Thread to Combat the Rape of the American Taxpayer)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2186266/posts
[Vickie, you may want to check the main ppages of the WMD post above this and the other related, that I am posting, re: health...]
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Feb09/apples.breastcancer.sl.html
Feb. 12, 2009
In flurry of studies, researcher details role of apples in inhibiting breast cancer
By Susan Lang
Six studies published in the past year by a Cornell researcher add to growing evidence that an apple a day — as well as daily helpings of other fruits and vegetables — can help keep the breast-cancer doctor away.
Rui Hai Liu
Rui Hai Liu
In one of his recent papers, published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (57:1), Rui Hai Liu, Cornell associate professor of food science and a member of Cornell’s Institute for Comparative and Environmental Toxicology, reports that fresh apple extracts significantly inhibited the size of mammary tumors in rats — and the more extracts they were given, the greater the inhibition.
“We not only observed that the treated animals had fewer tumors, but the tumors were smaller, less malignant and grew more slowly compared with the tumors in the untreated rats,” said Liu, pointing out that the study confirmed the findings of his preliminary study in rats published in 2007.
In his latest study, for example, he found that a type of adenocarcinoma — a highly malignant tumor and the main cause of death of breast-cancer patients, as well as of animals with mammary cancer — was evident in 81 percent of tumors in the control animals. However, it developed in only 57 percent, 50 percent and 23 percent of the rats fed low, middle and high doses of apple extracts (the equivalent of one, three and six apples a day in humans), respectively, during the 24-week study.
“That reflects potent anti-proliferative [rapid decrease] activity,” said Liu.
The studies highlight the important role of phytochemicals, known as phenolics or flavonoids, found in apples and other fruits and vegetables. Of the top 25 fruits consumed in the United States, Liu reported in the same journal (56:18) that apples provide 33 percent of the phenolics that Americans consume annually.
Chart shows Americans get about 33 percent of phenolics from apples
Provided
This chart from one of Liu’s recent papers shows the percentage of phenolics (phytochemicals) that Americans get from various fruits.
In a study of apple peel published in the same journal (56:21), Liu reported on a variety of new phenolic compounds that he discovered that also have “potent antioxidant and anti-proliferative activities” on tumors. And in yet another study in the same journal (56:24), he reported on his discovery of the specific modulation effects that apple extracts have on cell cycle machinery. Recently, Liu’s group also reported the finding that apple phytochemicals inhibit an important inflammation pathway (NFkB) in human breast cancer cells.
Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed invasive cancer and the second leading cause of cancer deaths in women in the United States, said Liu.
“These studies add to the growing evidence that increased consumption of fruits and vegetables, including apples, would provide consumers with more phenolics, which are proving to have important health benefits. I would encourage consumers to eat more and a wide variety of fruits and vegetables daily.”
The studies were supported, in part, by the American Institute for Cancer Research, the Ngan Foundation and the U.S. Apple Association.
##Big pie chart on page, shows dif. fruits %.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-02/nu-tys021709.php
Public release date: 17-Feb-2009
Contact: Marla Paul
Marla-Paul@northwestern.edu
312-503-8928
Northwestern University
Troubled youths struggle after time in detention center
CHICAGO -— The kids who pass through juvenile detention facilities are among the most troubled youths in the community. How do they fare a few years after this significant brush with the legal system?
Researchers from Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine interviewed youths ages 13 to 22 who had been detained in Cook County Temporary Juvenile Detention Center to see how they were doing three years later. They found that more than 90 percent were struggling in their lives and more than 20 percent were severely impaired in their ability to function. The severely impaired group had been expelled from school, broken the law and were addicted to drugs.
“This study highlights that we have failed to provide effective rehabilitation for these kids. We need to intervene early,” said Karen M. Abram, lead author and associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Feinberg School. “There is a dearth of services for these kids. They need help in multiple areas over a sustained period of time.”
Abram suggests that interventions should include “wraparound” services in which an interdisciplinary team of professionals develop a treatment plan and service agencies work together to provide appropriate care. She said these youths need treatment for psychiatric disorders – especially addictions— as well educational and vocational training and social skills.
“These kids need alternatives to their criminal lifestyle,” said Abram, who also is associate director of the Psycho-Legal Studies Program at Feinberg. “We need to provide effective services. If we don’t, there are ongoing costs, both to these kids and to society.”
The study was published on-line in the Journal of Adolescent Health and will appear in the print edition in the spring.
The study, which sampled 1,653 males and females, is part of the Northwestern Juvenile Project, an ongoing longitudinal study of health needs and outcomes of youth in the juvenile justice system.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-02/uof-vsm021709.php
[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 17-Feb-2009
Contact: Jill Pease
jpease@phhp.ufl.edu
352-273-5816
University of Florida
Vitamin supplements may protect against noise-induced hearing loss
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Vitamin supplements can prevent hearing loss in laboratory animals, according to two new studies, bringing investigators one step closer to the development of a pill that could stave off noise-induced and perhaps even age-related hearing loss in humans.
The findings will be reported Wednesday at the Association for Research in Otolaryngology’s annual conference in Baltimore by senior author Colleen Le Prell, Ph.D., a researcher at the University of Florida.
The supplements used in the research studies are composed of antioxidants — beta carotene and vitamins C and E — and the mineral magnesium. When administered prior to exposure to loud noise, the supplements prevented both temporary and permanent hearing loss in test animals.
“What is appealing about this vitamin ‘cocktail’ is that previous studies in humans, including those demonstrating successful use of these supplements in protecting eye health, have shown that supplements of these particular vitamins are safe for long-term use,” said Le Prell, an associate professor in the UF College of Public Health and Health Professions’ department of communicative disorders.
About 26 million Americans have noise-induced hearing loss, according to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, the agency that funded the studies.
In the first study, UF, University of Michigan and OtoMedicine scientists gave guinea pigs the vitamin supplements prior to a four-hour exposure to noise at 110 decibels, similar to levels reached at a loud concert. Researchers assessed the animals’ hearing by measuring sound-evoked neural activity and found that the treatment successfully prevented temporary hearing loss in the animals.
In humans, temporary noise-induced hearing loss, often accompanied by ringing in the ears, typically goes away after a few hours or days as the cells in the inner ear heal. Because repeated temporary hearing loss can lead to permanent hearing loss, the scientists speculate that prevention of temporary changes may ultimately prevent permanent changes.
In the second, related study in mice, UF, Washington University in St. Louis and OtoMedicine researchers showed that the supplements prevented permanent noise-induced hearing loss that occurs after a single loud sound exposure. The researchers found that the supplements prevented cell loss in an inner ear structure called the lateral wall, which is linked to age-related hearing loss, leading the scientists to believe these micronutrients may protect the ear against age-related changes in hearing.
“I am very encouraged by these results that we may be able to find a way to diminish permanent threshold shift with noise exposure,” said Debara Tucci, M.D., an associate professor of surgery in the otolaryngology division at Duke University Medical Center. “I look forward to hearing Dr. Le Prell’s work and reviewing her data.”
The research builds on previous studies that demonstrated hearing loss is not just caused by intense vibrations produced by loud noises that tear the delicate structures of the inner ear, as once thought, said Josef Miller, Ph.D., who has studied the mechanisms of hearing impairment for more than 20 years and is a frequent collaborator of Le Prell’s. Researchers now know noise-induced hearing loss is largely caused by the production of free radicals, which destroy healthy inner ear cells.
“The free radicals literally punch holes in the membrane of the cells,” said Miller, the Townsend professor of communicative disorders at the University of Michigan.
Miller is the co-founder of OtoMedicine, a University of Michigan spinoff company that has patented AuraQuell, the vitamin supplement formula used in the studies.
The antioxidant vitamins prevent hearing damage by “scavenging” the free radicals. Magnesium, which is not a traditional antioxidant, is added to the supplement mix to preserve blood flow to the inner ear and aid in healing.
Antioxidant supplements can also provide “post-noise rescue,” Le Prell said. A previous study by Le Prell and Miller showed that antioxidants can protect hearing days after exposure to loud noise.
“We found that the antioxidant combination of vitamin E and salicylate — the active agent in aspirin —effectively prevented cell death and permanent noise-induced hearing loss even when treatments were delayed up to three days after noise insult,” she said.
The researchers are collaborating on National Institutes of Health-funded clinical trials of the vitamin supplements in college students at UF who wear MP3 music players, and noise-exposed military troops and factory workers in Sweden and Spain.
If the trials show that the vitamins are as effective in preventing noise-induced hearing loss in humans as they have been in animals, Le Prell and Miller envision an easy-to-use supplement that could come in the form of a pill for people headed to a rock concert, a daily supplement for factory workers or a nutritional bar included in soldiers’ rations.
“Ear protection, such as ear plugs, is always the best practice for the prevention of noise-induced hearing loss, but in those populations who don’t or can’t wear hearing protection, for people in which mechanical devices just aren’t enough, and for people who may experience unexpected noise insult, these supplements could provide an opportunity for additional protection,” Le Prell said.
Thanks, Granny. Everything we spoke about years ago is coming to fruition.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-02/asfh-nbi021709.php
Public release date: 17-Feb-2009
Contact: Michael W. Neff
mwneff@ashs.org
703-836-4606
American Society for Horticultural Science
New blackberry introduced
‘Natchez’ thornless blackberry shows good potential for commercial shipping and home gardens
IMAGE: Fruit of ‘Natchez’ are elongated and very attractive with an exceptional glossy, black finish.
Click here for more information.
FAYETTEVILLE, AR—Introducing ‘Natchez’, the twelfth release in a series of erect-growing, high-quality, productive, floricane-fruiting blackberry (Rubus L. subgenus Rubus Watson) cultivars developed by the University of Arkansas.
John R. Clark and James N. Moore of the Department of Horticulture at the University of Arkansas introduced ‘Natchez’ in the October 2008 issue of the American Society of Horticultural Science’s journal HortScience. According to Clark, the new blackberry is a result of a cross of Ark. 2005 and Ark. 1857 made in 1998. The original plant was selected in 2001 from a seedling field at the University of Arkansas Fruit Research Station in Clarksville, and tested as selection Ark. 2241.
‘Natchez’ produces large fruit, near 9 grams on average in research trials. Fruit of ‘Natchez’ are elongated, somewhat blocky, and very attractive with an exceptional glossy, black finish.
‘Natchez’ exceeded postharvest performance of ‘Arapaho’ in most years. This is noteworthy, explain the researchers, because the comparison cultivars are considered to have exceptional shelf life. ‘Natchez’ is recommended for commercial shipping production, and is targeted as a replacement for the early season ‘Arapaho’.
Outstanding characteristics of ‘Natchez’ include early fruit-ripening date, high fruit quality, consistent high yields, large fruit size, and excellent postharvest fruit-handling potential. Superior plant characteristics include thornless, erect to semierect canes and good vigor and health. ‘Natchez’ also shows good potential for home garden use.
‘Natchez’ is expected to perform well in areas where ‘Apache’, ‘Arapaho’, ‘Ouachita’, or ‘Navaho’ are adapted, including all areas of the South and into the Midwest, in addition to the West and Pacific Northwest.
An application for a U.S. plant patent has been filed for ‘Natchez’.
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The complete study and abstract are available on the ASHS HortScience electronic journal web site: http://hortsci.ashspublications.org/cgi/content/full/43/6/1897
Founded in 1903, the American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS) is the largest organization dedicated to advancing all facets of horticultural research, education, and application. More information at ashs.org
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-02/cshl-cri021709.php
Public release date: 17-Feb-2009
Contact: Hema Bashyam
bashyam@cshl.edu
516-367-6822
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
CSHL researchers identify gene that helps plant cells keep communication channels open
GAT1 encodes an enzyme that maintains flow of information through transport channels
Plant cells communicate via microscopic channels called plasmodesmata that are embedded in their cell walls. For the stem cells in the plants’ growing tips, called “meristems,” the plasmodesmata are lifelines, allowing nutrients and genetic instructions for growth to flow in.
Developmental and environmental cues trigger changes in the structure of the tiny channels, thereby altering the flow of traffic through them. The genes and molecular pathways of the plant cell that respond to these cues, and the mechanisms that control channel structure and cell-to-cell traffic are, however, mostly unknown.
To identify these genes, a team of researchers led by Professor David Jackson, Ph.D., at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL), devised a method to find mutant cells whose channels were blocked to traffic. The experiments have revealed a gene called GAT1 (pronounced gate-one), which instructs cells to produce an enzyme found only in meristems, the stem-cell rich tip of the plant where new growth takes place. The enzyme improves the flow of traffic through plasmodesmata by acting as an antioxidant, a type of molecule that relieves cellular stress.
“This discovery is one of the first examples of using genetics to understand how plant cells communicate through plasmodesmata,” says Jackson, whose lab at CSHL is devoted to the study of plant genetics. “Our study suggests a mechanism through which plant cells can adjust trafficking in these channels through the various stages of development.” The team’s findings will be published in the Feb 17th issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
GAT1 keeps callose at bay
As plants develop, growth signals and environmental cues such as damage or stress trigger overproduction of a substance called callose. Although callose is a normal structural component of cell walls in plants, excess callose accumulates and forms obstructive clumps that plug the plasmodesmata and impede the flow of traffic through the channels.
Restricting flow can be beneficial in some instances, such as when damaged parts need to be closed off or virus-infected cells need to be quarantined. But flow blockage can be fatal too, especially when it happens in meristems.
“Meristems that are blocked and thereby starved of nutrients won’t give rise to daughter cells and spawn new organs, thus stunting the plant’s growth,” explains Jackson. “What we’ve found now is probably the mechanism that normally prevents blockages from occurring in these stem cells.”
Jackson’s team has found that plants stave off callose accumulation and keep the channels open by turning on the GAT1 gene in their stem cells. Seeds in which this gene failed to work were observed by the CSHL team to give rise to seedlings that barely survived more than two weeks, despite forming intact roots and an intact phloem – the main transport artery that carries nutrients and other supplies to the meristems.
The mutants even had intact meristems that had developed the required numbers of transport channels. These channels, however, were functionally defective, as the pile-up of callose narrowed them, making the passage of nutrient molecules impossible. The CSHL scientists were able to reverse this defect by re-introducing a functional GAT1 gene into mutant plants. When the GAT1 gene was turned on, the production and accumulation of callose decreased.
GAT1 counters oxidative stress
One of the distress signals that spur cells to synthesize callose are oxygen free radicals – the same cell-damaging molecules that have gained notoriety as a major cause of cell death and aging. In mutant plant seeds that lack a functional GAT1 gene, stem cells brim with high levels of these free radicals and other toxic ions, collectively known as reactive oxygen species (ROS).
This ROS threat, according to Jackson’s team, is normally counter-balanced by GAT1. The CSHL scientists found that this gene encodes an enzyme called thioredoxin-m3, which they found only in the meristems, as well as in the tissues dedicated to transport. There, it acts as an antioxidant – a molecule that slows or prevents the formation of ROS.
Thioredoxin-m3 is a member of a large family of small proteins that are ubiquitous in plant and animal cells, and are biochemical workhorses that meddle in multiple metabolic processes. They consequently have an impact on numerous cellular events, including stress responses, cell death, and gene expression.
In addition to protecting plants against oxidative damage, as the CSHL scientists have shown, thioredoxin-m3 and its cousins might have other specific functions in different stages of plant development in different tissues and under different physiological conditions. Knowing the diverse functions of these proteins may help in engineering plants that are drought- and heat-tolerant.
Discovering the role of thioredozin-m3 in cell-cell traffic within meristems has already provided one such pay-off. Jackson’s group found that increasing the expression of GAT1 in plants caused them to take longer to produce flowers and enter senescence – the period of old age. “People are generally interested in controlling senescence for commercial purposes such as growing plants that last longer or flowers that stay fresh longer,” explains Jackson. “Our results suggest that manipulating GAT1 expression in plants can be one way of achieving this,” he says.
###
“Control of Arabidopsis meristem development by thioredoxin-dependent regulation of intercellular transport” appears in the Feb 17th issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The full citation is: Yoselin Benitez-Alfonso, Michelle Cilia, Adrianna San Roman, Carole Thomas, Andy Maule, Stephen Hearn, and David Jackson. This article is available online at http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2009/02/12/0808717106.full.pdf+html (doi: 10.1073/pnas.0808717106)
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) is a private, not-for-profit research and education institution at the forefront of efforts in molecular biology and genetics to generate knowledge that will yield better diagnostics and treatments for cancer, neurological diseases and other major causes of human suffering.
For more information, visit www.cshl.edu.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-02/nsfc-nsp021709.php
Public release date: 17-Feb-2009
Contact: Sarah DeWitt
sarah.l.dewitt@nasa.gov
301-286-0535
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
NASA study predicted outbreak of deadly virus
An early warning system, more than a decade in development, successfully predicted the 2006-2007 outbreak of the deadly Rift Valley fever in northeast Africa, according to a new study led by NASA scientists.
Rift Valley fever is unique in that its emergence is closely linked to interannual climate variability. Utilizing that link, researchers including Assaf Anyamba, a geographer and remote sensing scientist with the University of Maryland Baltimore County and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., used a blend of NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration measurements of sea surface temperatures, precipitation, and vegetation cover to predict when and where an outbreak would occur.
The final product, a Rift Valley fever “risk map,” gave public health officials in East Africa up to six weeks of warning for the 2006-2007 outbreak, enough time to lessen human impact. The researchers described their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The first-of-its-kind prediction is the culmination of decades of research. During an intense El Niño event in 1997, the largest known outbreak of Rift Valley fever spread across the Horn of Africa. About 90,000 people were infected with the virus, which is carried by mosquitoes and transmitted to humans by mosquito bites or through contact with infected livestock.
The 1997 outbreak provoked the formation of a working group—funded by the U.S. Department of Defense Global Emerging Infections Surveillance and Response System—to see if predictions of an outbreak could be made operational. Such predictions would not only aid mitigation efforts in the endemic countries and protect the global public, but would help protect American civilian and military personnel located and traveling overseas, ensure the safety of imported goods and animals, and prevent infected humans or mosquitoes from entering the United States.
“To do all that, we need to understand a disease in the endemic region,” Anyamba said.
The link between the mosquito life cycle and vegetation growth was first described in a 1987 Science paper by co-authors Kenneth Linthicum of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Compton Tucker of NASA Goddard. Then, a subsequent 1999 Science paper described link between the disease and the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). ENSO is a cyclical, global phenomenon of sea surface temperature changes that can contribute to extreme climate events around the world.
For some areas, the warm phase of ENSO brings drought, while in some areas like the Horn of Africa, ENSO leads to above-normal rainfall. Excessive, sustained rainfall awakens the eggs of mosquitoes infected with Rift Valley fever that can remain dormant for up to 15 years in dried-out dambos—shallow wetlands common in the region.
Building on that research, Anyamba and colleagues set out to predict when conditions were ripe for excessive rainfall, and thus an outbreak. They started by examining satellite measurements of sea surface temperatures. One of the first indicators that ENSO will bring an abundance of rainfall is a rise in the surface temperature of the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean and the western equatorial Indian Ocean.
But perhaps the most telling indicator of a potential outbreak is a measure of the mosquito habitat itself. The researchers used a satellite-derived vegetation data set—processed at NASA Goddard and called the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index—that measures the landscape’s “greenness.” Greener regions have more than the average amount of vegetation, which means more water and more potential habitat for infected mosquitoes.
“Greenness describes habitat and represents life,” Anyamba said. “Without such systematic, continuous Earth system measurements from satellites, we would not be able to translate the information into outbreak predictions.”
The final product is a risk map for Rift Valley fever, showing areas of anomalous rainfall and vegetation growth over a three-month period. The forecast is updated and issued monthly as a means to guide ground-based mosquito and virus surveillance.
As early as September 2006, the monthly advisory from Anyamba and colleagues indicated an elevated risk of Rift Valley fever activity in East Africa. By November, Kenya’s government had begun collaborating with non-governmental organizations to implement disease mitigation measures—restricting animal movement, distributing mosquito bed nets, informing the public, and enacting programs to control mosquitoes and vaccinate animals.
“There is no human vaccine,” Anyamba said, “so prevention is critical.”
Between two and six weeks later—depending on the location—the disease was detected in humans.
“Satellite data is a valuable tool that allowed us to look remotely at large sections of land in Africa and understand what was happening on the ground,” Linthicum said.
After the 2006-2007 outbreak, Anyamba and colleagues assessed the effectiveness of the warning maps. They compared locations that had been identified as “at risk” with the locations where Rift Valley fever was reported.
Of the 1,088 cases reported in Kenya, Somalia, and Tanzania, 64 percent fell within areas delineated on the risk map. The other 36 percent of cases did not occur within “at risk” areas, but none were more than 30 miles away, leading the researchers believe that they had identified most of the initial infection sites.
The potential for mapping the risk of disease outbreaks is not limited to Africa. Previous research has shown that risk maps are possible whenever the abundance of a virus can be linked to extremes in climate conditions. Chikungunya in east Africa and Hantavirus and West Nile virus in the United States, for example, have been linked to conditions of rainfall extremes.
“We are coming up on almost 30 years of vegetation data from satellites, which provides us with a good basis for predicting,” Linthicum said upon returning from a Rift Valley fever workshop in Cairo, Egypt in January. “At this meeting, it was clear that using this tool as a basis for predictions has become accepted as the norm.”
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http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/riftvalley_fever.html
Written By:
Kathryn Hansen
Goddard Space Flight Center
[Now it is “What is on my Strawberry?”...granny]
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-02/asfh-mba021709.php
Public release date: 17-Feb-2009
Contact: Michael W. Neff
mwneff@ashs.org
703-836-4606
American Society for Horticultural Science
Methyl bromide alternatives for California strawberry nurseries
Researchers find alternative fumigants effective in weed control
IMAGE: Testing alternatives to methyl bromide for controlling disease.
Click here for more information.
SALINAS, CA—Since around 1960, methyl bromide (MB) has been the foundation for soilborne disease and weed control in California strawberries. MB, classified as a Class I stratospheric ozone-depleting chemical, has been phased out since 2005, but is still being used in strawberry production under a critical-use exemption.
Strawberry production is important to California’s economy; the state leads the U.S. in strawberry production. In 2006, the fruit harvest yielded a value of $1.2 billion, and accounted for 79% of the total U.S. gross sales.
The diversity of climates in California along with the use of this fumigant, permits the production of high-quality runner plants, which are propagated in virus-free growing facilities called “screenhouses”. Plants are reared first in a low-elevation facility during the warm early season, and then moved to higher-elevation facilities for cool, late-summer conditions. This process ensures that strawberry plants will be ready to transplant into fruit fields by early fall.
A research study published in the American Society for Horticultural Science journal HortScience evaluated the effectiveness and cost efficiency for weed control in lower- and higher-elevation nurseries with MB-alternative fumigants.
Researchers Steven A. Fennimore, Milton J. Haar, Rachael E. Goodhue, and Christopher Q.Winterbottom noted that weed control in strawberry nurseries is more difficult than in fruiting fields. “Because weed control methods such as mulches used in fruit fields can’t be used in nurseries, fumigants are one of the most important weed control tools available for strawberry nursery fields”, the team explained.
Assessing weed control in the study consisted of three methods: weed seed viability, weed density counts, and timing of hand-weeding inputs by crews. Strawberry and weed seed samples were treated with the alternative fumigants to determine the potential for strawberry and weed seed to survive in the nursery fields. Fumigant effectiveness was studied in fields treated with the combination of MB plus Pic, iodomethane (IM) plus Pic, and control fields. Additional treatments tested were 1,3-dicloropropane (1,3-D) plus Pic followed by dazomet, and Pic followed by dazomet. Overall, there were few to no differences in weed control between IMPic, 1,3-D Pic followed by dazomet, Pic followed by dazomet, and MBPic. Relative to the control fields, hand-weeding times were reduced in all fields that had been fumigated.
The main difference between fumigating with the different methods was material cost. The researchers explained that, because current prices were used to calculate hand weeding and treatment costs, these prices will change over time and may become more equitable given different circumstances.
The study results showed that that fumigating with MB is currently much cheaper than using IM. On the basis of weed control, all of the alternative fumigant treatments were acceptable replacements for MB.
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The complete study and abstract are available on the ASHS HortScience electronic journal web site: http://hortsci.ashspublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/43/5/1495
Founded in 1903, the American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS) is the largest organization dedicated to advancing all facets of horticultural research, education, and application. More information at: http://ashs.org
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-02/asfh-ccb021709.php
Public release date: 17-Feb-2009
Contact: Michael W. Neff
mwneff@ashs.org
703-836-4606
American Society for Horticultural Science
Controlling cucumber beetles organically
Pest numbers reduced, fruit yields increased using organic methods
FRANKFORT, KY—As the popularity of organic produce increases with consumers, growers need more options to manage pests naturally.
John D. Sedlacek and Gary R. Cline (retired) of the Land Grant Program at Kentucky State University led a research project designed to investigate options for reducing the presence of cucumber beetles. These pests damage crops by eating the roots, shoots, and flowers, and transmit the bacterial wilt pathogen. The study, published in the American Society of Horticultural Science journal HortTechnology, compares several practices in watermelon and muskmelon crops.
In 2002, watermelon was grown on black plastic mulch with the exception of one group, which was grown on Al-plastic, an aluminum coated plastic mulch previously linked to reduced cucumber beetle densities on squash. Another plot of watermelons was planted with companion plants thought to repel cucumber beetles. A third group was planted with a different set of companion plants that seem to attract insects that prey on cucumber beetles. Sticky traps stationed among the plants collected cucumber beetles, which were counted and removed on a weekly basis. The watermelon yields were not adversely affected by the Al-plastic nor by the companion plants.
More beetles were collected in the control and Al-plastic groups than the companion plant groups. Similar numbers of beetles were trapped in repellent plant groups and beneficial insect-attracting plant groups, suggesting these plants may be more valuable as a physical barrier to the beetles’ movement than for their attractive or repellent properties.
In 2003, the study was replicated using muskmelons. Al-plastic was included again, but the companion plant groups were combined to include beetle-repelling radishes and predator-insect-attracting buckwheat. Other treatments included use of rowcovers and the organic insecticide PyGanic®. The separate Al-plastic and companion plant groups increased muskmelon yields of 75% and 66%, respectively, compared to the control. Rowcovers also significantly increased yield. The number of trapped beetles was significantly higher in the control group than in any other.
Then, in 2004, the study was repeated, but this time the insecticide group was replaced by a combination of Al-plastic and companion plants. Muskmelon weights varied significantly among all groups, with the greatest weights coming from the Al-plastic and companion plant combined groups with rowcovers. Weights in the Al-plastic-only group were greater than in the companion plant-only group.
All of the treatments, except for the insecticide, significantly increased yields compared to control groups. It appeared that some treatments, such as companion plants, may have reduced beetle populations by affecting adults, while others, such as the Al-plastic, may have affected beetle larvae still in the soil.
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The complete study and abstract are available on the ASHS HortTechnology electronic journal web site: http://horttech.ashspublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/18/3/436
Founded in 1903, the American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS) is the largest organization dedicated to advancing all facets of horticultural research, education, and application. More information at ashs.org
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-02/apa-wdi021709.php
Public release date: 17-Feb-2009
Contact: Audrey Hamilton
ahamilton@apa.org
202-336-5706
American Psychological Association
When dreaming is believing: Dreams affect people’s judgment, behavior
Dreams can carry more weight than conscious thoughts, say researchers
WASHINGTON – While science tries to understand the stuff dreams are made of, humans, from cultures all over the world, continue to believe that dreams contain important hidden truths, according to newly published research.
In six different studies, researchers surveyed nearly 1,100 people about their dreams. “Psychologists’ interpretations of the meaning of dreams vary widely,” said Carey Morewedge, an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University and the study’s lead author. “But our research shows that people believe their dreams provide meaningful insight into themselves and their world.”
The article appears in the February issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, published by the American Psychological Association.
In one study that surveyed general beliefs about dreams, Morewedge and co-author Michael Norton, an assistant professor at Harvard Business School, surveyed 149 university students in the United States, India and South Korea. The researchers asked the students to rate different theories about dreams. Across all three cultures, an overwhelming majority of the students endorsed the theory that dreams reveal hidden truths about themselves and the world, a belief also endorsed by a nationally representative sample of Americans.
In another study reported in the article, the researchers wanted to explore how dreams might influence people’s waking behavior. They surveyed 182 commuters at a Boston train station, asking them to imagine that one of four possible scenarios had happened the night before a scheduled airline trip: The national threat level was raised to orange, indicating a high risk of terrorist attack; they consciously thought about their plane crashing; they dreamed about a plane crash; or a real plane crash occurred on the route they planned to take. A dream of a plane crash was more likely to affect travel plans than either thinking about a crash or a government warning, and the dream of a plane crash produced a similar level of anxiety as did an actual crash.
Finally, the researchers wanted to find out whether people perceive all dreams as equally meaningful, or whether their interpretations were influenced by their waking beliefs and desires. In another study, 270 men and women from across the United States took a short online survey in which they were asked to remember a dream they had had about a person they knew. People ascribed more importance to pleasant dreams about a person they liked as compared to a person they did not like, while they were more likely to consider an unpleasant dream more meaningful if it was about a person they disliked.
“In other words,” said Morewedge, “people attribute meaning to dreams when it corresponds with their pre-existing beliefs and desires. This was also the case in another experiment which demonstrated that people who believe in God were likely to consider any dream in which God spoke to them to be meaningful; agnostics, however, considered dreams in which God spoke to be more meaningful when God commanded them to take a pleasant vacation than when God commanded them to engage in self-sacrifice.”
The authors say more research is needed to explore fully how people interpret their dreams, and in what cases dreams may actually reveal hidden information.. “Most people understand that dreams are unlikely to predict the future but that doesn’t prevent them from finding meaning in their dreams, whether their contents are mundane or bizarre,” said Morewedge.
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Article: “When Dreaming Is Believing: The (Motivated) Interpretation of Dreams,” Carey K. Morewedge, PhD, Carnegie Mellon University, Michael I. Norton, PhD, Harvard University; Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 96, Issue 2.
(Full text of the article is available from the APA Public Affairs Office and at http://www.apa.org/journals/releases/psp962249.pdf)
Contact Carey Morewedge by e-mail at morewedge@cmu.edu; his phone number is 617-308-7033.
The American Psychological Association (APA), in Washington, DC, is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States and is the world’s largest association of psychologists. APA’s membership includes more than 150,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 54 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance psychology as a science, as a profession and as a means of promoting human welfare.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-02/asfh-apa021709.php
Public release date: 17-Feb-2009
Contact: Michael W. Neff
mwneff@ashs.org
703-836-4606
American Society for Horticultural Science
Apple peel appeal
Using software to measure variances in ‘honeycrisp’ apple peels
IMAGE: Computer measures amount of blush or stripe in peel of “honeycrisp “ apple.
Click here for more information.
ST. PAUL, MN—Apples have long been associated with good health, including lower risks of cancer and cardiovascular disease. Apples also contain anthocyanins, important antioxidants that give the peels their red coloring. Redness is one of the most important factors consumers consider when buying apples.
One variety of apple called ‘Honeycrisp’ has peel pigment that takes on one of two patterns—”striped” or “blushed.” A single ‘Honeycrisp’ tree can produce both striped and blushed apples, a phenomenon unique to this variety. In terms of marketability, consumers in some regions prefer striped apples, while others prefer blushed, but overall redder is better.
Adriana Telias, Emily Hoover, and Diego Rother of the University of Minnesota published a research study in the American Society for Horticultural Science journal HortScience comparing the coloring of ‘Honeycrisp’ apples. From 2005 the team studied the fruit of trees grown from buds on branches with exclusively striped or blushed fruit. The apples were separated as either striped or blushed, and color and stripe intensity were measured, and then the fruits were photographed. The researchers developed color-analyzing software to automatically separate the apples from the background in the photos and measure statistics such as mean color in large areas of the fruit peel.
It was found that blushed trees produced more blushed fruit than striped trees. Likewise, the markings on striped fruit were more intense on striped trees than blushed trees.
Position on the tree may also be related to the pattern, as it was observed that northeast-facing branches produced 13% blushed fruit compared to only 6% on southwest-facing branches. Southwest branches also produced more intensely striped fruit than northeast branches. And, within clusters of fruit, the apples were more likely to have similar coloring.
Each year, blushed fruit was found to be redder than striped fruit. “Given that blushed fruit are redder than striped ones, the goal should be to increase blushed fruit production when target markets prefer redder fruit,” stated the researchers. They added; “This may prove difficult given that even the top blushed-producing trees never yielded more than 50% blushed fruit over all 3 years.”
Because higher crop loads were associated with lower percentage of blushed fruit, the study suggests regulating the crop load to increase the number of blushed fruits, and that growing trees from buds of blushed fruit branches, should result in higher blushed fruit yields. This is based on indications that both genetic and environmental factors affect peel pigmentation.
The software developed to evaluate peel color in the study is available for community use.
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The complete study and abstract are available on the ASHS HortScience electronic journal web site: http://hortsci.ashspublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/43/5/1441
Founded in 1903, the American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS) is the largest organization dedicated to advancing all facets of horticultural research, education, and application. More information at ashs.org
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-02/asfh-pwg021709.php
Public release date: 17-Feb-2009
Contact: Michael W. Neff
mwneff@ashs.org
703-836-4606
American Society for Horticultural Science
Protecting wine grapes from heat and drought
Winemakers may see benefits using foliar particle film
IMAGE: Particle film used to protect wine grapes from heat and drought.
Click here for more information.
PARMA, ID—Deficit irrigation is an agricultural technique used to achieve a variety of results depending on the crop. For white wine grapes, it balances the crop load by limiting the canopy size so there aren’t too many leaves shading the grapes. For red wine grapes, deficit irrigation again limits canopy size, but also affects berry components associated with wine quality.
A drawback of this canopy-limiting process is that fruit can become sunburned, especially under sunny, arid conditions, which can adversely affect productivity and fruit maturity. A particle film, which increases light reflection and reduces leaf temperature, has been tested on several crops. It acts as a sunscreen by reflecting the harmful ultraviolet rays off of the leaves and fruit, but still allows the right radiation for photosynthesis through to nourish the plant.
Krista Shellie of the U.S. Department of Agriculture led a study to learn more about foliar particle film’s effects on wine grapes when the grapes were grown under varying levels of water stress. The study, published in the American Society for Horticultural Science journal HortScience, also noted particle film’s effect on grape yield and maturity. Grapes were grown according to commercial practice with the exception of the watering schedule and application of the particle film. Film effectiveness was monitored by measuring the amount of leaf gas exchange, but particle film’s influence on this process seemed to differ depending on the amount of water stress the vine was experiencing.
Particle film did not prevent sunburn on exposed fruit when vines were under the most stressful growing conditions, but did increase the weight of a red-skinned wine grape by 7% and increased a white-skinned wine grapes’ soluble solids concentration by 11%. But, the weight of white-skinned wine grape and the soluble solids concentration of the red-skinned grape were unaffected. Other factors pertaining to yield, including grape maturity, were not influenced by particle film.
The study’s findings support a classification of these grapes as anisohydric, meaning the plant is affected by the amount of soil moisture available and is unable to restrict its own water loss under dry soil conditions. This is also known as a “drought-avoiding” classification.
Particle film may increase the yield potential of the vines, but it did not protect against sun damage when vines were grown under deficit irrigation. The cost-benefit of particle film must be decided by growers and wine makers and its potential benefit of more uniform fruit maturity, increased yield, and berry size.
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The complete study and abstract are available on the ASHS HortScience electronic journal web site: http://hortsci.ashspublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/43/5/1392
Founded in 1903, the American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS) is the largest organization dedicated to advancing all facets of horticultural research, education, and application. More information at ashs.org
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-02/asfh-srs021709.php
Public release date: 17-Feb-2009
Contact: Michael W. Neff
mwneff@ashs.org
703-836-4606
American Society for Horticultural Science
Select roses survive with minimal care
Rose research shows best performers for low-maintenance gardens
IMAGE: Belinda’s Dream, one of the original EarthKind Roses.
Click here for more information.
DALLAS, TX—Roses have long been a favorite of gardeners, but they often require a lot of work to thrive. And the emphasis on organics has more home gardeners concerned about the environment and reluctant to use pesticides.
W. A. Mackay of Texas A&M University led a study comparing several varieties of roses to determine which grow best with minimal care under certain conditions. The results were published in the American Society for Horticultural Science journal HortTechnology.
Flower number, flower size, visual estimate of flowering percentage, plant vigor and overall plant performance were rated for 116 varieties of roses from Spring 2000 through 2002. No pesticides or fertilizers were used to grow the roses. Four plants represented each variety, and only varieties with three or four plants surviving the experiment were used in the statistical analysis.
Additional tests were run on a subset of rose varieties to assess their nutrient levels. Monthly recordings were also taken to rate each variety’s disease resistance by noting symptoms of petal blight, powdery mildew, and black spot, some of the most common ailments of roses. Plants that were grown on their own roots had significantly better appearance ratings and survival rates than plants that were grafted.
‘RADrazz’ (Knock Out™) was the best-performing rose overall, which the study contributes to its “vigorous growth and attractive foliage.” Trumpeter® was the worst-performing rose. Out of all the roses that performed well in the study, 15 are recommended as low-maintenance for growing in Texas.
The study also found differences in performance between classes of roses, with Polyanthas being best in overall performance and Hybrid Tea roses being worst. Based on the results of this study, selected varieties were chosen for an expanded nationwide study to develop the EarthKind™ collection of roses.
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The complete study is available on the ASHS HortTechnology electronic journal web site: http://horttech.ashspublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/18/3/417
Founded in 1903, the American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS) is the largest organization dedicated to advancing all facets of horticultural research, education and application. More information at: ashs.org
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-02/asfh-cml021709.php
Public release date: 17-Feb-2009
Contact: Michael W. Neff
mwneff@ashs.org
703-836-4606
American Society for Horticultural Science
Capillary mats labor-saving, economical alternative to hand watering
Retail nurseries can recoup investment in one year
TUCSON, AZ—Capillary mats are popular in the retail nursery industry and with many home gardeners. The uniquely designed mats provide automated irrigation to a variety of plants, conserve water, and reduce the need for labor-intensive hand-watering.
Made with absorbent fabric lined with polyethylene film on the bottom and covered on top with perforated polyethylene or similar material, the mats help minimize evaporation while allowing water to move from the bottom of the mat up into the containers on top.
One advantage of capillary mats is that plants of different size and water requirement can be placed on the same mat without under- or over- watering individual containers. Other reasons mats are preferred to overhead sprinklers are that mats leave less water on the floor of the retail area, and staff don’t have to spend as much time watering plants. The downside: capillary mats can be an expensive system to set up and maintain.
In a study published in the American Society of Horticultural Science journal HortTechnology, a research team from the University of Arizona used capillary mats and overhead sprinkler irrigation in a simulated retail environment to maintain annual and perennial plants in containers for various time periods during both summer and winter.
The researchers combined the results from both seasons and concluded that four species with dense canopies had larger canopy sizes when maintained on the capillary mats. Three species requiring more drainage had larger canopies with overhead irrigation, and five species were unaffected by irrigation systems. Additionally, substrate electrical conductivity was higher for some species in winter for plants on capillary mats, thus conserving fertilizer compared with overhead irrigation. Plants maintained on capillary mats required 71% less water in summer and 62% less in winter compared to the plants watered using overhead irrigation systems.
The study also included an economic analysis component comparing the investment required for setup and maintenance of plants in a retail situation using hand-watering, overhead sprinkler, or capillary mat irrigation. “The economic analysis indicates that capillary mats are a labor-saving alternative to hand-watering in a retail nursery and will compensate for the higher initial investment within less than one year”, noted lead author Ursula K. Schuch.
Summarizing the research results, Schuch found that “overhead sprinklers were the most cost-effective system of the three because of less costly initial set-up and maintenance than the capillary mats”, but added that sprinklers are not a true alternative to hand-watering in a retail situation because they interfere with customer traffic and retail workers.
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The complete study and abstract are available on the ASHS HortTechnology electronic journal web site: http://horttech.ashspublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/18/2/250
Founded in 1903, the American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS) is the largest organization dedicated to advancing all facets of horticultural research, education, and application. More information at ashs.org
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