Search results for "orti"
showing 10 items of 7644 documents
Millerandage and flower abscission in ‘Grillo’, ‘Frappato’ and ‘Nero d’Avola’ grapevines: Some probable causes
2018
Some Sicilian cultivars, in particular vintage, showed a high percentage of flower abscissions and shot berries. In this paper, to understand these phenomena, some aspects of the flower morphology of three Sicilian cultivars (two black: ‘Nero d’Avola’ and ‘Frappato’; and one white: ‘Grillo’) was studied. The number of stamens, ovule adherence to the ovary wall and pollen germination were evaluated using standard light microscopy. At harvest, seed number was counted on 30 berries per cultivar. The percentage of six stamens was lowest in ‘Frappato’ and highest in ‘Grillo’. The ovule adherence to the ovary wall was highest in ‘Frappato’ and lowest in ‘Nero d’Avola’. The percentage of pollen ge…
Prohexadione calcium is herbicidal to the sunflower root parasite Orobanche cumana
2020
BACKGROUND The obligatory sunflower root parasite Orobanche cumana Wallr. deprives its host of essential nutrients, resulting in a dramatic reduction in yield and biomass. A post-emergence application with an imidazolinone herbicide on an imidazolinone-tolerant sunflower is highly effective against O. cumana. The herbicide inhibits the enzyme acetohydroxy acid synthase and consequently, growth of the parasite is inhibited, although the sunflower survives the treatment through mutations in the target enzyme. Interestingly, field studies have shown that a combined application of an imidazolinone herbicide with prohexadione resulted in reduced emergence of O. cumana compared with the sole appl…
Poplar Biochar as an Alternative Substrate for Curly Endive Cultivated in a Soilless System
2020
Imminent necessity for eco-friendly and low-cost substitutes to peat is a defiance in the soilless plant cultivation systems. Wood biochar could entirely or partly substitute peat as a plant growing constituent to produce vegetables. Nevertheless, knowledge concerning potential plant performance of leafy green vegetables grown on wood biochar is restricted. The present study assessed the main physicochemical traits of various growing media constituted by decreasing the content of peat and by increasing the percentages of poplar wood biochar. Yield, nutritional and functional properties of curly endive plants cultivated in a protected environment were also tested. Biochar was pyrolyzed from …
Predicting olive flowering phenology with phenoclimatic models
2018
In plants, day length and temperature are the major climatic factors that affect the transition from a phenological phase to the next one. Non-linear models, such as growing degree hours (GDH), have been successfully used to calculate thermal time required for spring bud burst in deciduous fruit trees. In this experiment, temperature records and blooming dates of olive trees in different years and for 10 different sites in the Italian territory were recorded. Olive booming time was correlated to the amount of (GDH) accumulated from the date of bud rest onset, calculated as the day when the maximum negative chilling units accumulation was reached (UTAH Model), to full bloom. The GDH model wa…
Fruit quality evaluation of affirmed and local loquat (Eriobotrya japonicaLindl) cultivars using instrumental and sensory analyses
2016
Introduction. Fruit quality can be evaluated by combining instrumental and sensory analyses. These methodologies have been affirmed and tested on different fruit tree species, but loquat is still little known from this point of view. Materials and methods. In this trial, conducted in Palermo and Catania (Sicily, Italy), both instrumental and sensory analyses were carried out on fruit of 8 loquat affirmed cultivars (‘Golden Nugget’, ‘Peluche’) and local cultivars (‘Marceno’, ‘Sanfilippara’, ‘Nespolone di Trabia’, ‘Virticchiara’, ‘Bianco Dolce’ and ‘BRT20’) with the aim of assessing their quality traits. Results and discussion. The sensory results agreed quite well with the physicochemical da…
Seasonal dynamics of photosynthesis and total carbon gain in bearing and nonbearing pistachio (Pistacia vera L.) shoots
2018
Seasonal changes in leaf gas exchange, assimilation response to light and leaf area were monitored in bearing and nonbearing pistachio shoots. Shoot bearing status did not directly affect leaf photosynthetic rate. However, photosynthetic light-response curves strongly varied during the season demonstrating the dominant effect of the treeâs seasonal phenology on assimilation. Early in the season low photosynthetic rates were associated with high rates of dark respiration indicating limited photosynthesis in the young leaves. As leaves matured, dark respiration decreased and assimilation reached maximum values. Photosynthetic efficiency was strongly reduced late in the season due to leaf ag…
Microbial inoculation for improving the growth and health of micropropagated strawberry
2004
Multimicrobial inoculation has been proposed as a way of protecting plants against environmental stress and increasing the sustainability of plant production. To study these possibilities in a micropropagation system, microplants of strawberry, Fragaria × ananssa, were inoculated or left uninoculated with five microorganisms ( Glomus mosseae BEG29, Bacillus subtilis M3, Trichoderma harzianumDB11, Pseudomonas fluorescensC7r12 and Gliocladium catenulatumGliomix ® ), used either singly or in dual mixtures in the presence or absence of the strawberry diseases crown rot ( Phytophthora cactorum) and red stele (P. fragariae). Finnish light Sphagnum peat was used as the growth substrate in the expe…
Interactions between dark septate endophytes, ectomycorrhizal fungi and root pathogens in vitro
2019
ABSTRACT Dark septate endophytes (DSEs) are widely distributed worldwide and can promote plant growth. Therefore, they are considered potentially important plant allies, especially in stressful environments. Previous studies have reported that DSEs cohabit roots with other microorganisms such as ectomycorrhizal (ECM), endophytic and pathogenic fungi/oomycetes. However, interactions between different DSE species have not yet been reported, and studies on the interactions between DSEs and other fungi are scarce. Using a simple and reproducible pairwise growth assay in vitro, we studied the synergistic/antagonistic interactions between eight DSEs, two ECM fungi and three root pathogens. Most o…
Tomato trichomes are deadly hurdles limiting the establishment of Amblyseius swirskii Athias-Henriot (Acari: Phytoseiidae)
2021
[EN] Amblyseius swirskii is a predatory mite widely used for the control of very important pest species, such as whiteflies and thrips, in organic farming and conventional agriculture. However, this species cannot establish on tomato crops, probably due to the toxic effects of plant trichomes and their exudates. We evaluated tomato plants for effects on: a) A. swirskii preference mediated by plant volatiles, b) A. swirskii development, predation capacity and reproductive performance, c) the dispersal and survival of mites as affected by stem trichomes, and d) mite survival as a function of secondary metabolites secreted by tomato trichomes. The results showed that A. swirskii mites which ga…
First record ofTetranychus ludeniZacher (Acariformes: Tetranychidae) in Italy
2018
Tetranychus ludeni Zacher is reported here for the first time in Italy. It was found on some cultivated and spontaneous plants, often associated with Tetranychus urticae Koch. Four phytoseiid mites, widely distributed in the Mediterranean countries, Phytoseiulus persimilis Athias-Henriot, Iphiseius degenerans Berlese, Typhlodromus (Anthoseius) kerkirae Swirski and Ragusa, and Typhlodromus (Anthoseius) transvaalensis Nesbitt, were found associated with T. ludeni In Sicily. The morphological characters for the identification of the four Italian Tetranychus species are also reported.