Horticulture Commons^™

Creating Sustainable School And Home Gardens: Using Weather Stations, Jake Sanders, Daniel Findlay, Kathy Cabe Trundle, Rita Hagevik, Kaitlin Campbell

All Current Publications

This fact sheet provides an overview of how weather stations work and the steps to set up your own weather station. To help monitor the water conditions, wind speeds, and temperatures that can impact your plants, we suggest adding a weather station to your garden area or greenhouse.

Creating Sustainable School And Home Gardens: Wildlife Monitoring Using Bioacoustics, Kaitlin Campbell, Rita Hagevik, Kathy Cabe Trundle

All Current Publications

Animals use sounds to communicate with each other, just like humans. Humans can listen in on animals by using a bioacoustic monitoring device, a passive device that quietly records surrounding sounds. Bioacoustic monitoring devices blend in with the environment, allowing us to know what types of animals appear when we’re gone. The device collects and stores data and allows us to visualize, analyze, and identify animals from the sounds they make.

Growth Of Passionflower (Passiflora Incarnata) On A Green Roof Using Commercial Fertilizer Vs. Natural Compost, Siobhan Day, Corinne Parker, Carmyn Harrison, Lauren York

Science University Research Symposium (SURS)

Passionflower (Passiflora incarnata), Tennessee’s state wildflower, is valued for its ecological role as a pollinator plant and its historical significance to the Cherokee, making it an ideal candidate for green roofs that support biodiversity and urban sustainability. This study examined the feasibility of growing passionflower on a green roof and tested whether commercial fertilizer (Miracle-Gro) or natural compost would lead to greater growth compared to no fertilizer. Twelve plants were divided equally into three treatment groups: control, Miracle-Gro, and compost, with growth measurements taken weekly from September to November. Results suggest that passionflowers treated with Miracle-Gro achieved the most growth, …

Creating Sustainable School And Home Gardens: Composting, Larry Krissek, Kathy Cabe Trundle, Rita Hagevik

All Current Publications

This fact sheet provides information about composting, such as what compost is, how to compost, and the benefits of composting in your garden.

Strategic Light Use Efficiency Optimization Of Hydroponic Lettuce Exposed To Different Photosynthetic Photon Flux Densities, Peyton Lou Palsha, Marc W, Van Iersel, Ryan W. Dickson, Lynne Seymour, Kuan Qin, Rhuanito Saranz Ferrarezi

Horticulture Faculty Publications and Presentations

Light use efficiency characterizes the ability of a crop to convert radiation into biomass. Determining optimum cultivar-specific photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD) values from sole-source lighting can be used to optimize leaf expansion, maximize biomass, and shorten the production period. This study evaluated the growth of hydroponic lettuce (Lactuca sativa) ‘Rex’ cultivated under different PPFD levels using sole-source lighting. At lower PPFD levels of 201 to 292 µmol·m⁻²·s⁻¹, the plant projected canopy size (PCS) and specific leaf area increased to enhance light capture by 36.2% as compared to higher PPFD levels (333 and 413 µmol·m^{−2 …}

Parkway Pocket Garden Maintenance Booklet, Plaster Creek Stewards

Print Materials

Parkway pocket gardens are designed for areas between the sidewalk and street, but without a basin and curb-cut. By replacing lawn in parkways with native plants, it can soak up rainwater that falls on the gardens, provide habitat and a food source for pollinators and birds, and increase biodiversity in your neighborhood. This maintenance guide covers the Michigan native plants that may be found in a parkway pocket garden, maintenance recommendations, and weeds you may encounter.

Nebline, October 2024

NEBLINE Newsletter Archive from Nebraska Extension in Lancaster County

Super Fair Showcases 4-H’ers Learning Experiences

10 Money-$aving Grocery $hopping Hacks You Need to Try, Alyssa Havlovic

Recipe of the Month: Air Fryer Pork and Apple Burgers, Alyssa Havlovic

Growing Woody Floral Plants in the Home Garden, Sarah Browning

Garden Guie: Things to Do This Month, Mary Jane Frogge

Highboy Cover Crop Interseeding Project, John Nelson

Car Seat Safety for Your Family, Hayley Jackson-Perez

Heart of 4-H Volunteer Award: Lorene Bartos

Join 4-H

4-H Livestock Scholarship Recipients

State 4-H Horse Expo Top Results

Lancaster County Volunteers Receive Statewide 4-H Awards

4-H Announcements

Super Fair 4-H/FFA Top Results

State Fair 4-H …

Summer- And Fall-Planted Cover Crops Across Nebraska: Assessing Performance Using Aerial Imagery And Evaluating Short-Term Soil Impacts, Grace Emperatriz Pacheco Jiron

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

Cover crops are widely recognized for improving soil health and promoting sustainability in agricultural systems. Despite the increasing use of monitoring tools like aerial imagery, their application in evaluating summer-planted cover crops in the Great Plains remains limited, hindering effective management strategies. Fall-planted cover crops provide long-term environmental benefits, including enhanced soil quality and erosion control; however, understanding their short-term effects on soil properties is crucial for encouraging adoption. This study assessed summer- and fall-planted cover crops across Nebraska, integrating aerial imagery and soil health analyses.

Over two years, fifteen summer-planted monocultures and five mixtures were evaluated for establishment, biomass …

Effect Of S-Metolachlor And Flumioxazin Herbicides On Sweetpotato Treated With And Without Activated Charcoal Applied Through Transplant Water, Colton D. Blankenship, Katherine M. Jennings, David W. Monks, Stephen L. Meyers, David L. Jordan, Jonathan R. Schultheis, David H. Suchoff, Levi D. Moore, Stephen J. Ippolito

Department of Horticulture & Landscape Architecture Faculty Publications

Flumioxazin and S-metolachlor are widely used in conventional sweetpotato production in North Carolina and other states; however, some growers have recently expressed concerns about potential effects of these herbicides on sweetpotato yield and quality. Previous research indicates that activated charcoal has the potential to reduce herbicide injury. Field studies were conducted in 2021 and 2022 to determine whether flumioxazin applied preplant and S-metolachlor applied before and after transplanting negatively affect sweetpotato yield and quality when activated charcoal is applied with transplant water. The studies evaluated five herbicide treatments and two activated charcoal treatments. Herbicide treatments included two flumioxazin rates, one …

Creating Sustainable School And Home Gardens: Beneficial Biological Control Insects, Kaitlin Campbell, Rita Hagevik, Kathy Cabe Trundle

All Current Publications

On small scales, like school and home gardens, encouraging biological control agents can be highly effective, reducing the need for insecticides that harm the environment, humans, and beneficial insects. This fact sheet provides information on using beneficial insects in your garden and offers a field guide to identify them.

Creating Sustainable School And Home Gardens: Using Trail Cameras, Kaitlin Campbell, Kathy Cabe Trundle, Rita Hagevik

All Current Publications

Trail cameras (also called game or wildlife cameras) have been used for decades to document wildlife for personal use, education, and scientific use (documenting distributions of animals worldwide for conservation). Using a trail camera can allow us to see the biodiversity around us. Trail cameras are often used to help conserve and monitor wildlife populations. You can participate in these efforts too!

Blackbird, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Biosecurity factsheets

The introduced common blackbird (Turdus merula) is a pest in eastern Australia. It damages commercial fruit crops and may compete with native birds. The species is prohibited in Western Australia and individuals found here are destroyed.

The Western Australian Organism List (WAOL) contains information on the area(s) in which this pest is declared and the control and keeping categories to which it has been assigned in Western Australia (WA). For more information, see our website at dpird.wa.gov.au.

Policies And Programs For Water-Wise Residential Landscaping In Utah, Charlotte Clark, Kendall Becker, Scott Hotaling

All Current Publications

Water-wise landscaping is the practice of using plants in a landscape that are adapted to local conditions and only need small amounts of water. Converting yards to water-wise landscaping conserves water and is a climate adaptation action residents can take to benefit Utah as temperatures rise and drought becomes more common. Many policies and programs in Utah help residents use water conscientiously and make changes. This fact sheet provides information regarding current and future water-wise landscaping policies and programs in Utah.

Fifteen Years Of Findings: Advancements In Spring Dead Spot Research From 2009 To 2024, W. J. Hutchens, J. K. Anders, E. L. Butler, J. P. Kerns, D. S. Mccall, G. L. Miller, N. R. Walker

Horticulture Faculty Publications and Presentations

Spring dead spot (Ophiosphaerella spp.; SDS) is one of the most detrimental diseases to warm-season turfgrasses, particularly bermudagrass (Cynodon spp.), growing in climates where cold temperatures induce dormancy. The pathogen can infect the crowns, stolons, rhizomes, and roots of bermudagrass most of the year, but infection in the fall predisposes the turf to winter injury and plant death. Symptoms typically appear the following spring, making management of SDS challenging. Moreover, the biology, epidemiology, and management of SDS are not fully understood. Ample research has been conducted on SDS which was thoroughly summarized before 2009 by Tredway et al. …

Dissecting The Genetic Architecture Of Sunflower Disc Diameter Using Genome-Wide Association Study, Yavuz Delen, Ravi V. Mural, Semra Palali-Delen, Gen Xu, James C. Schnable, Ismail M. Dweikat, Jinliang Yang

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) plays an essential role in meeting the demand for edible oil worldwide. The yield of sunflower seeds encompasses several component traits, including the disc diameter. Over three consecutive years, 2019, 2020, and 2022, we assessed phenotypic variation in disc diameter across a diverse set of sunflower accessions (N = 342) in replicated field trials. Upon aggregating the phenotypic data from multiple years, we estimated the broad sense heritability (H²) of the disc diameter trait to be 0.88. A subset of N = 274 accessions was genotyped by using the tunable genotyping-by-sequencing (tGBS) method, …

Rehabilitation Of Urban Heritage To Revive Heritage Villages In Ad Dair Governorate In Jazan Province Of The Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia (Dra'al-Khatm Heritage Village: Case Study), Meaeel Raee Alraithi

Student Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the rehabilitation of urban heritage in Dra'Al-Khatm village within Ad Dair Governorate, Jazan Province, Saudi Arabia, emphasizing the revival of heritage villages as essential cultural, social, and economic resources. Urban heritage, defined by its tangible elements and historical depth, plays a pivotal role in representing civilizations and defining cultural identity. Despite its value, urban heritage in Saudi Arabia faces threats from modernization and neglect, leading to the deterioration of historical sites and villages. This study focuses on Dra'Al-Khatm village, a site of significant historical and architectural value, yet currently in a state of deterioration. The research adopts …

Buzzworthy Messaging: Assessing Residents’ Perceptions Of Labels To Better Promote Pollinator Gardening, Colby J. Silvert, Laura A. Warner, Cody Gusto, John M. Diaz, Rachel E. Mallinger

Journal of Extension

Consumers appear more likely to purchase plants with labeling indicating pollinator-friendly production or high pollinator resource value. No standardized label for pollinator-supporting plants or landscape practices exists in the United States, which has proliferated the variety of labels used by the industry. This mixed-methods study aims to provide insight into residents’ preferred pollinator-related labelling for plants and landscape practices in order to help Extension professionals and green industry stakeholders improve outreach, marketing, and communications efforts. Findings suggest a butterfly-friendly label would be most effective for marketing while residents would accept and favorably perceive labels emphasizing either pollinator-friendly or bee-friendly attributes.

Postharvest Characterization And Storage Of Fresh Katmon Fruit (Dillenia Philippinensis), Leonisa A. Artes, Amparo A. Wagan, Michelle E. Omana, Leonardo L. Tamisin Jr

The Philippine Agricultural Scientist

Katmon fruit has great economic potential but little is known about its postharvest behavior. This study characterized the katmon fruit after harvest so that appropriate handling may be recommended to extend its shelf life during storage or market display. Physicochemical characteristics, particularly firmness, pH, total soluble solids (TSS), titratable acids (TA), and TSS:TA ratio were evaluated during storage under room condition (22°C) and at low temperature (15°C). These characteristics were almost constant under 22°C or at 15°C for two weeks, with pH at 2.8, TSS at about 3.40°Brix, TA at 1.1 – 1.5%, and TSS:TA ratio at 3.1 – 2.04. …

Quantifying Temperature Effects On Plant Development Rates And Quality Of Compact Container-Grown Pepper, Ryan W. Dickson, Sonali Padhye, Leala M. Machesney, Josh Tebow

Horticulture Faculty Publications and Presentations

The mean daily temperature effects on plant development rates and quality of compact container-grown pepper were evaluated. Compact pepper cultivars Fresh Bites Yellow and Hot Burrito were grown in greenhouses at 18 to 26 °C (Expt. 1) and 20 to 30 °C (Expt. 2) under supplemental high-pressure sodium lighting and a 16-hour photoperiod. The number of days to first open flower, to first ripe fruit, and from flower to ripe fruit were measured and the development rates calculated by taking the reciprocal (e.g., 1/day). Temperature effects were predicted by fitting a nonlinear exponential function that included the base temperature ( …

How Much Green To Keep The Garden Clean? An Analysis Of The Willingness To Pay (Wtp) Of Home Gardeners For Biowrap Technology, Gengchen Cai, Kanij Fatema, Karina A. Schoengold

Cornhusker Economics

A research team from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Kansas State University, and South Dakota School of Mines are working on creating an alternative product that would use locally available materials to create a spray-on, biodegradable polymer that can suppress weeds and will biodegrade in a timeframe that is amenable to crop production. We broadly refer to this technology as BioWRAP (Bioplastics with Regenerative Agricultural Properties).

Our results show that the home garden market is potentially a significant one for a BioWRAP product. Continued work in the development of the BioWRAP technology is necessary to determine what the cost of a …