Life Sciences Commons^™

Landscape Performance Of Buck Roses Under Minimal-Input Conditions In North-Central Texas, Derald A. Harp, Gaye Hammond, David C. Zlesak, Greg Church, Mark Chamblee, Steve George

Faculty Publications

Griffith Buck (Iowa State University) bred roses (Rosa sp.) to survive long, cold winters and hot, humid summers yet still retain their foliage without fungicides. Unfortunately, there is little known about the performance of Buck roses in the southern United States. Thirty-eight Buck rose cultivars were evaluated for flowering, disease resistance, drought tolerance, and overall landscape performance in alkaline soils with no fertilizer, no pesticides, and only limited irrigation. Flowering occurred on a bimodal basis, with the highest per plant mean bloom number (16.3 blooms) and bloom coverage (9.7%) in April, and a second flowering in the fall, with …

Flowering, Drought, And Disease Tolerance, And Landscape Performance Of Landscape Rose Grown Under Low-Input Conditions In North Central Texas, Derald A. Harp, Gaye Hammond, David C. Zlesak, Greg Church, Mark Chamblee, Steve George

Faculty Publications

Landscaping today involves the struggle to balance aesthetically pleasing plants while minimizing the impact on the environment, reducing water usage, decreasing fertilizer use, and eliminating or significantly reducing pesticide usage. Roses (Rosa sp.), although seen as challenging plants, remain the most popular flowering shrub in the United States. The identification of new cultivars that combine beauty, pest and disease resistance, and drought tolerance are important to Texas landscapes. Sixty roses were assessed over a 3-year period to determine flowering, drought tolerance, disease resistance, and overall landscape performance in minimal-input gardens in north central Texas. Atypical weather during the study …

The Fifth Leaf And Spike Organs Of Barley (Hordeum Vulgare L.) Display Different Physiological And Metabolic Responses To Drought Stress, Jordan A. Hein, Mark E. Sherrard, Kirk P. Manfredi, Tilahun Abebe

Faculty Publications

Background: Photosynthetic organs of the cereal spike (ear) provide assimilate for grain filling, but their response to drought is poorly understood. In this study, we characterized the drought response of individual organs of the barley spike (awn, lemma, and palea) and compared them with a vegetative organ (fifth leaf). Understanding differences in physiological and metabolic responses between the leaf and spike organs during drought can help us develop high yielding cultivars for environments where terminal drought is prevalent.

Results: We exposed barley plants to drought by withholding water for 4 days at the grain filling stage and compared …

Impacts Of Upstream Drought And Water Withdrawals On The Health And Survival Of Downstream Estuarine Oyster Populations, Laura E. Petes, Alicia J. Brown, Carley R. Knight

Faculty Publications

Increases in the frequency, duration, and severity of regional drought pose major threats to the health and integrity of downstream ecosystems. During 2007-2008, the U.S. southeast experienced one of the most severe droughts on record. Drought and water withdrawals in the upstream watershed led to decreased freshwater input to Apalachicola Bay, Florida, an estuary that is home to a diversity of commercially and ecologically important organisms. This study applied a combination of laboratory experiments and field observations to investigate the effects of reduced freshwater input on Apalachicola oysters. Oysters suffered significant disease-related mortality under high-salinity, drought conditions, particularly during the …

Management And Pest Management Considerations On Droughty Soils: Four Year Results, David Kulhavy, Kenneth G. Watterson, James Kroll, James R. Meeker

Faculty Publications

Four year survival of pines on droughty (Typic Quartzips~mments) soils was best for longleaf pine and Terr-Sorb -treated loblolly pine. Pest considerations include town ants and Nantucket pine tip moths on loblolly pine. Untreated loblolly pine had reduced leader and total height growth anH increased tip moth infestations, compared to Terra-Sorb and clay-slurry treated loblolly pine. Soil texture averaged less than eight percent silt and clay combined in the treatment areas.

Survival Of Pines On Droughty Soils: Two-Year Results, James Kroll, William C. Deauman, C. Darwin Foster, David Kulhavy, W. David Tracey

Faculty Publications

Three species of pines (loblolly, slash and longleaf) were planted with four treatments (loblolly and slash = bareroot, clay dip slurry and TerrasorH ; longleaf = containerized) to test survival on droughty, typic quartzipsamments soils. At the end of the first season, survival~s significantly better for the containerized longleaf and Terrasoro treated loblolly pine (81 and 85%) followed by untreaRed loblolly pine (51%), clay-treated loblolly (50%), then Terrasorb treated slash (48%), untreated slash (41%) and clay-treated slash (36%). At the e~of the second growing season, longleaf had 56% survival, Terrasor~ treated loblolly (51%), clay-dip slurry loblolly (31.9%), Terrasoro treated slash …