Horticulture Commons^™

Can Sub-Saharan Africa Feed Itself?, Martin K. Van Ittersum, Lenny G. J. Van Bussel, Joost Wolf, Patricio Grassini, Justin Van Wart, Nicolas Guilpart, Lieven Claessens, Hugo De Groot, Keith Wiebe, Daniel Mason-D'Croz, Haishun Yang, Hendrik Boogard, Pepijn A. J. Van Oort, Marloes P. Van Loon, Kazuki Saito, Ochieng Adimo, Samuel Adjei-Nsiah, Alhassane Agali, Abdullahi Bala, Regis Chikowo, Kayuki Kaizzi, Mamoutou Kouressy, Joachim H. J. R. Makoi, Korodjouma Ouattara, Kindie Tesfaye, Kenneth G. Cassman

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Although global food demand is expected to increase 60% by 2050 compared with 2005/2007, the rise will be much greater in sub- Saharan Africa (SSA). Indeed, SSA is the region at greatest food security risk because by 2050 its population will increase 2.5-fold and demand for cereals approximately triple, whereas current levels of cereal consumption already depend on substantial imports. At issue is whether SSA can meet this vast increase in cereal demand without greater reliance on cereal imports or major expansion of agricultural area and associated biodiversity loss and greenhouse gas emissions. Recent studies indicate that the global increase …

The Role Of African Leafy Vegetables In Food Security, Marcia M. Croft

Open Access Dissertations

African leafy vegetables (ALVs) are a diverse set of crops grown across sub-Saharan Africa. They have been a staple of traditional diets and contain many critical micronutrients but their importance has been largely ignored by researchers and policymakers at the expense of imported crops. Availability, accessibility, and utilization of ALVs are limited by factors across the supply chain. This research investigated seed systems, drought tolerance, hydroponic production, market barriers, consumer preference, and the impact of gender as related to ALVs. We found that ALVs play an important role in food security and that critical differences exist between formal and informal …

Managing Bacterial Wilt, Caused By Erwinia Tracheiphila, On Muskmelon With Early Control Of Striped Cucumber Beetle ( Acalymma Vittatum (F)), And Through Varietal Selection, Ahmad Shah Mohammadi

Open Access Dissertations

Muskmelon (Cucumis melo L), is an important vegetable crop in the United States. It is grown throughout the US, and Indiana ranked 4th in production after California, Arizona and Georgia with 12.4 thousand metric tons and market value of $7.6 million in 2015. Bacterial wilt of cucurbits, which is caused by Erwinia tracheiphila (E. F. Smith), and vectored by striped cucumber beetle (Acalymma vittatum (F)), is one of the most serious diseases of muskmelon that influences muskmelon quality and yield. Many cultivars of muskmelon are grown around the United States, especially in the Midwest. Muskmelon cultivars differ in …

Mechanism Of Resistance, Gene Flow, And Integrated Management Of Ragweeds (Ambrosia) In Nebraska, Zahoor Ahmad Ganie

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Common ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia L.) and giant ragweed (Ambrosia trifida L.) are native annual broadleaf weeds in the United States found in diverse agroecosystems, roadsides, and wastelands. They are economically important weed species in the Midwest and sources of pollen allergies. Confirmation of glyphosate-resistant (GR) common and giant ragweed in Nebraska justified the need to determine the mechanism of resistance, dispersal of resistance genes via pollen, and to develop an integrated management program. The objectives of this research were to: 1) determine the mechanism of glyphosate resistance in a common ragweed biotype from Nebraska; 2) evaluate the effect …

Effect Of Smooth Bromegrass Management On Grazing Cattle Dung Decomposition, Co2 Flux, And Soil Nutrient Movement, Bradley D. Schick

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Rapid nutrient cycling improves forage quality and livestock production in pastures. Interseeding legumes may be a strategy to enhance N cycling, but effects of dung excreted from cattle grazing pastures with legumes on dung decomposition rates and soil N cycling have not been studied. Our objective was to evaluate how dung excreted from cattle grazing legume-interseeded, N-fertilized, and unfertilized smooth bromegrass (Bromus inermis Leyss.) pastures affects dung chemical composition, dry matter decomposition, CO­₂ flux, and N availability in soil. Freshly deposited dung from yearling steers grazing legume-interseeded, N-fertilized, and unfertilized pastures was collected and placed as pats in …

Nebline, November/December 2016

NEBLINE Newsletter Archive from Nebraska Extension in Lancaster County

Feature: Look Who’s Hatching — Preschoolers Explore Egg-Laying Animals

Food & Health

Farm & Acreage

Pests & Wildlife

Horticulture

Early Childhood

4-H & Youth

Extension Calendar

and other extension news and events

Modeling Long-Term Corn Yield Response To Nitrogen Rate And Crop Rotation, Laila A. Puntel, John E. Sawyer, Daniel W. Barker, Ranae Dietzel, Hanna Poffenbarger, Michael J. Castellano, Kenneth J. Moore, Peter J. Thorburn, Sotirios V. Archontoulis

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Improved prediction of optimal N fertilizer rates for corn (Zea mays L.) can reduce N losses and increase profits. We tested the ability of the Agricultural Production Systems sIMulator (APSIM) to simulate corn and soybean (Glycine max L.) yields, the economic optimum N rate (EONR) using a 16-year field-experiment dataset from central Iowa, USA that included two crop sequences (continuous corn and soybean-corn) and five N fertilizer rates (0, 67, 134, 201, and 268 kg N ha^-1) applied to corn. Our objectives were to: (a) quantify model prediction accuracy before and after calibration, and report calibration steps; (b) …

Characterization And Development Mechanism Of Apios Americana Tuber Starch, Hanyu Yangchen, Vikas Belamkar, Steven B. Cannon, Jay-Lin Jane

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Apios americana is a wild legume-bearing plant with edible tubers. Domestication of Apios is in progress because of the superior nutritional value and health benefits of the tuber. Objectives of this study were to: (1) characterize physicochemical properties of the Apios tuber starch; and (2) understand differences in starch structures and properties between the mother (seed) and child (progeny) tubers and the mechanism of starch development. Granules of the Apios tuber starch displayed ellipsoidal, rod, or kidney shape with diameter ranges of 1–30 m. The mother tuber starches displayed greater percentage crystallinity, larger gelatinization enthalpy-changes, longer branch-chain lengths of amylopectin, …

Genomics-Assisted Characterization Of A Breeding Collection Of Apios Americana, An Edible Tuberous Legume, Vikas Belamkar, Andrew Farmer, Nathan T. Weeks, Scott R. Kalberer, William J. Blackmon, Steven B. Cannon

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

For species with potential as new crops, rapid improvement may be facilitated by new genomic methods. Apios (Apios americana Medik.), once a staple food source of Native American Indians, produces protein-rich tubers, tolerates a wide range of soils, and symbiotically fixes nitrogen. We report the first high-quality de novo transcriptome assembly, an expression atlas, and a set of 58,154 SNP and 39,609 gene expression markers (GEMs) for characterization of a breeding collection. Both SNPs and GEMs identify six genotypic clusters in the collection. Transcripts mapped to the Phaseolus vulgaris genome–another phaseoloid legume with the same chromosome number–provide provisional genetic …

Plants Having Increased Bomass And Methods For Making The Same, Aleel K. Grennan, Donald R. Ort, Stephen Patrick Moose, Damla D. Bilgin, Thomas Clemente, Fredy Altpeter, Stephen P. Long

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

The impact of plastid size change in both monocot and dicot plants has been examined. In both, when plastid size is increased there is an increase in biomass relative to the parental lines. Thus, provided herein are methods for increasing the biomass of a plant, comprising decreasing the expression of at least one plastid division protein in a plant. Optionally, the level of chlorophyll in the plant is also reduced.

Arboretum Annual Report 2015-2016, Glenn Dreyer

Annual Reports

No abstract provided.

Nebline, October 2016

NEBLINE Newsletter Archive from Nebraska Extension in Lancaster County

Feature: Legends of the Fall — Accidental and Occasional Invaders

Food & Health

Farm & Acreage

Pests & Wildlife

Horticulture

Early Childhood

4-H & Youth

Extension Calendar

and other extension news and events

Nebline, September 2016

NEBLINE Newsletter Archive from Nebraska Extension in Lancaster County

Feature: 4-H Youth Showcase Projects, Develop Skills at the Super Fair

Food & Health

Farm & Acreage

Pests & Wildlife

Horticulture

Early Childhood

4-H & Youth

Extension Calendar

and other extension news and events

Nebline, August 2016

NEBLINE Newsletter Archive from Nebraska Extension in Lancaster County

Feature: 4-H Clover College 20th Anniversary — Grows From 8 to 58 Workshops

Food & Health

Farm & Acreage

Pests & Wildlife

Horticulture

Early Childhood

4-H & Youth

Extension Calendar

and other extension news and events

Special pullout section: Lancaster County Super Fair 2016 Schedule & Map

Cross Species Selection Scans Identify Components Of C4 Photosynthesis In The Grasses, Pu Huang, Anthony J. Studer, James C. Schnable, Elizabeth A. Kellogg, Thomas P. Brutnell

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

C₄ photosynthesis is perhaps one of the best examples of convergent adaptive evolution with over 25 independent origins in the grasses (Poaceae) alone. The availability of high quality grass genome sequences presents new opportunities to explore the mechanisms underlying this complex trait using evolutionary biology-based approaches. In this study, we performed genome-wide cross-species selection scans in C₄ lineages to facilitate discovery of C₄ genes. The study was enabled by the well conserved collinearity of grass genomes and the recently sequenced genome of a C₃ panicoid grass, Dichanthelium oligosanthes. This method, in contrast to previous studies, …

Nebline, July 2016

NEBLINE Newsletter Archive from Nebraska Extension in Lancaster County

Feature: Lancaster County Extension Board — Building Our Community Connection

Food & Health

Farm & Acreage

Pests & Wildlife

Horticulture

Early Childhood

4-H & Youth

Extension Calendar

and other extension news and events

Herbicide Resistantsorghum Mutants, Ismail M. Dweikat

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

This disclosure provides for four different sorghum mutants that exhibit resistance to ALS-inhibiting herbicides. This dis closure also provides for methods of using such Sorghum mutants that exhibit resistance to ALS-inhibiting herbicides in breeding methods to make Sorghum hybrids, varieties, or lines. The Sorghum hybrids, varieties, and lines provided in this disclosure can be used in methods of controlling weeds.

Quantification Of Carbohydrates In Grape Tissues Using Capillary Zone Electrophoresis, Lu Zhao, Ann M. Chanon, Nabanita Chattopadhyay, Imed E. Dami, Joshua J. Blakeslee

Kentucky Tobacco Research and Development Center Faculty Publications

Soluble sugars play an important role in freezing tolerance in both herbaceous and woody plants, functioning in both the reduction of freezing-induced dehydration and the cryoprotection of cellular constituents. The quantification of soluble sugars in plant tissues is, therefore, essential in understanding freezing tolerance. While a number of analytical techniques and methods have been used to quantify sugars, most of these are expensive and time-consuming due to complex sample preparation procedures which require the derivatization of the carbohydrates being analyzed. Analysis of soluble sugars using capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) under alkaline conditions with direct UV detection has previously been used …

Long-Term Sandhills Prairie Responses To Precipitation, Temperature, And Cattle Stocking Rate, John A. Guretzky, Cheryl Dunn, Heidi L. Hillhouse

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Understanding of Sandhills prairie, the most expansive sand dune region stabilized by perennial grasses in the Western Hemisphere, is limited by lack of long-term vegetation data. We used a 26-year dataset to evaluate Sandhills prairie responses to yearto- year variation in precipitation, temperature, and cattle stocking rate. Basal cover, a measurement that is constant seasonally and used to detect long-term changes in bunchgrass vegetation, was measured in 38–40 permanent plots positioned along four transects spanning 769 ha from 1979 to 2007. Across this period, total basal cover averaged 2.4 % and was dominated by warm-season grasses (81.1 %). Schizachyrium scoparium …

Nebline, June 2016

NEBLINE Newsletter Archive from Nebraska Extension in Lancaster County

Feature: The Garden Grocery — Food Safety & Selection at Farmers’ Markets

Food & Health

Farm & Acreage

Pests & Wildlife

Horticulture

Early Childhood

4-H & Youth

Extension Calendar

and other extension news and events

Nebline, May 2016

NEBLINE Newsletter Archive from Nebraska Extension in Lancaster County

Feature: Emerald Ash Borer is Getting Closer

Food & Health

Family Living

Farm & Acreage

Horticulture

Pests & Wildlife

4-H & Youth

Extension Calendar

and other extension news and events

Nebline, April 2016

NEBLINE Newsletter Archive from Nebraska Extension in Lancaster County

Feature: Climate Impacts on Cropping Systems in Eastern Nebraska

Food & Health

Family Living

Farm & Acreage

Horticulture

Pests & Wildlife

4-H & Youth

Extension Calendar

and other extension news and events

Special Pullout Section: Weed Awareness

Information Thermodynamics Of Cytosine Dna Methylation, Robersy Sanchez Rodriguez, Sally Ann Mackenzie

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Cytosine DNA methylation (CDM) is a stable epigenetic modification to the genome and a widespread regulatory process in living organisms that involves multicomponent molecular machines. Genome-wide cytosine methylation patterning participates in the epigenetic reprogramming of a cell, suggesting that the biological information contained within methylation positions may be amenable to decoding. Adaptation to a new cellular or organismal environment also implies the potential for genome-wide redistribution of CDM changes that will ensure the stability of DNA molecules. This raises the question of whether or not we would be able to sort out the regulatory methylation signals from the CDM background …

Nebline, March 2016

NEBLINE Newsletter Archive from Nebraska Extension in Lancaster County

Feature: It’s Easier Than Ever to Connect with Extension — Mobile Device and Social Media are Changing the Way People Learn

Food & Health

Family Living

Farm & Acreage

Horticulture

Pests & Wildlife

4-H & Youth

Extension Calendar

and other extension news and events

Ws-2 Introgression In A Proportion Of Arabidopsis Thaliana Col-0 Stock Seed Produces Specific Phenotypes And Highlights The Importance Of Routine Genetic Verification, Mon-Ray Shao, Vikas Shedge, Hardik Kundariya, Fredric R. Lehle, Sally Ann Mackenzie

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Arabidopsis thaliana is an important model organism with a robust network of resources that has been of enormous value to the plant science research community. The use of isogenic material as a reference point or control is critical for many types of experiments in plant molecular biology and genetics. Recently, we noticed that some seed from a common source of the widely used Columbia-0 (Col-0) strain gave rise to plants showing features atypical for this strain. Whole-genome DNA-sequencing and allelespecific PCR assays confirmed that the abnormal individuals contain multiple introgressions from the ecotype Wassilewskija-2 (Ws-2), as described below. This …

Student-Conducted Farmer Video Interviews, Jenn K. Simons, Justin Van Wart, Charles Francis, Kristyn Harms

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

High school agricultural education teachers have expressed concern about the lack of easily accessible educational materials dealing with contemporary topics in sustainable agriculture. There are numerous textbooks and monographs available for farmers and students at the college level, including the highly practical resources available from the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) book series on soil fertility (Magdoff and van Es, 2010), cover crops (Bowman et al., 2007) and building a farm business (DiGiacomo et al., 2003), among others. Although these are full of color photos and easily accessible graphs and tables, they are still in the print media category. …

Nebline, February 2016

NEBLINE Newsletter Archive from Nebraska Extension in Lancaster County

Feature: Tips to Keep Your Heart Healthy — February is Heart Health Month

Food & Health

Family Living

Farm & Acreage

Horticulture

Pests & Wildlife

4-H & Youth

Extension Calendar

and other extension news and events

Review Of Land Capability Assessment For The Swan Valley, Peter Tille, Angela Stuart-Street

Resource management technical reports

Land capability review for the Swan Valley.

The land capability review of the Swan Valley examined and updated previous soil and capability studies done in the area, which are still considered highly relevant for the planning requirements of the Swan Valley. As a result we have updated information on the potential for irrigated agriculture in the Swan Valley which will guide decision-making in the future.

This review uses a modified version of a new approach to presenting information for land use planning, developed by DAFWA in the Mid West region.

The main findings of the review include:

• The alluvial terraces …

Corn Era Hybrid Response To Nitrogen Fertilization, Krishna P. Woli, Matthew J. Boyer, Roger Wesley Elmore, John E. Sawyer, Lori J. Abendroth, Daniel W. Barker

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Corn (Zea mays L.) N use is of continued interest due to agronomic performance and environmental issues. This 2-yr study evaluated era hybrid response to fertilizer nitrogen (FN) rate in a factorial arrangement of one popular hybrid per five decades (1960–2000 eras) and five N rates (0–224 kg N ha^–1). An additional hybrid per era was grown at 168 kg N ha^–1. Hybrid productivity and nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) increased across the eras, but not between the 1980 and 1990 eras. Grain yield (GY) increased 65% and total plant biomass 43%, however, total plant nitrogen …

Mapping Qtls And Association Of Differentially Expressed Gene Transcripts For Multiple Agronomic Traits Under Different Nitrogen Levels In Sorghum, Malleswari Gelli, Sharon E. Mitchell, Kan Liu, Thomas E. Clemente, Donald P. Weeks, Chi Zhang, David R. Holding, Ismail M. Dweikat

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Background: Sorghum is an important C₄ crop which relies on applied Nitrogen fertilizers (N) for optimal yields, of which substantial amounts are lost into the atmosphere. Understanding the genetic variation of sorghum in response to limited nitrogen supply is important for elucidating the underlying genetic mechanisms of nitrogen utilization.

Results: A bi-parental mapping population consisting of 131 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) was used to map quantitative trait loci (QTLs) influencing different agronomic traits evaluated under normal N (100 kg.ha⁻¹ fertilizer) and low N (0 kg.ha⁻¹ fertilizer) conditions. A linkage map spanning 1614 cM was developed …